ZZ Top are famous for the massive beards of Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill, the beardie guitar and bass twosome that front the band. The nearly always beardless drummer at the back is the perfectly named Frank Beard.
Which of these is Mr Beard!
When not being tickled by beards I’m known to frequent McLachlans DJ night in Canonmills. It is once per month. And I missed the last one.
My very 1st set was supposed to be 1960s/70s based. I thought a more modern feel was the new order so went for a loose average of 1985. Twenty years in the past! Maybe the peak of record production but the kind of bands/tunes I grew up with.
After the first wonderful experience with 45rpm records, I pulled out my 12 inches (records) for this. I brought a lot less vinyl than last time and didn’t have a running order in mind except to start with ZZ Top as most people don’t realise that they really like ZZTopalot.
I’m not a DJ. More a player of records. I pushed Start and Stop at almost the same time and the set went like this:
ZZ Top. The Grange
Motorhead. Ace of Spades, 7 inch
Beastie Boys. Fight For Your Right, 7 inch
The Cramps. All Women Are Bad, 7 inch
The Thanes. Hey Girl
The Jesus and Mary Chain. Some Candy Talking
Joy Division. Atmosphere
The Stone Roses. Going Down (oops plays at 33rpm!)
Blondie. Sunday Girl (en Francais)
Nirvana. Sliver
Primal Scream. Rocks
The Fall. Shoulder pads #1B
Francois Hardy. Only Friends, 7 inch
What? No Blues or soul dude? No, not this time. A bit of a moody-guy set in hindsight and not enough female artists but a lot of energy in those tunes and they felt right on the night. It’s not supposed to be a Madchester night or a soul night. Just good tunes passionately felt. A set of classical or orchestral short tunes would be great too. That’s a challenge for someone!
A Tangent. I had to nip off sharp to see the tail end of the Black Diamond Express at a wee gig on Picardy Place. I caught the last two songs. They were both fine electric versions of delta blues songs by a really tight blues collective. 6 band members out of the usual 9. The tunes extended by a tight band into a really hypnotic groove. Speakeasy feeling Robert Johnson blues by a Forth Delta, Edinburgh blues band. I’ve never been to a Deep South juke-joint but these guys do sound authentic in the flesh. I hope they see some success.
The highlight of the night was finding that one of the DJs was looking for something to do during the week. As I’m moving house and need a bit of home-time for DIY, you are likely to find a new and friendly face in VoxBox on Thursdays. Joining me (Darren) and George in the VoxBox shop is Laura. A young music fan, record collector and a recent Edinburgh University Art graduate! So we are a very lucky to have her on board and hope our regular customers give her a warm welcome!
Due to customer interest in the night and the limited amount of spots available at McClachlans, VoxBox is looking to eventually start a similar night in the Stockbridge area. No venue or date has been decided yet but please get in touch if you are interested in doing a DJ set. Again it would be an ‘open turntable’ event. If you believe in the tunes, bring them along! Singles and album tracks too. We’ll show you how to work the set up. Sets will be 40 minutes and will start around 7pm. Slots will be fairly loose but we’ll need an idea of DJ numbers to avoid being oversubscribed.
You can be heard even without a beard.
Tomato Tomato. Potato Potato.
On Thursday, reading The Metro on the way into VoxBox on the bus they had highlighted a gig in Glasgow. Robin Williamson at the Arches, starts at 8pm. This is from The Metro which is a poppier kind of of paper. I’m so glad that they featured the gig. I’m a recent convert to The Incredible String Band (See previous post entitled ‘Meeting Michael’). They’re known as a psychedelic folk band from the 1960s and are the only Scottish band to play Woodstock. Robin founded the band with Mike Heron and Clive Palmer. There is no quiz at the end of this blog post.
I found a Robin Williamson record in Avalanche of all places just last year. Songs of Love and Parting from 1981. It appears that Robin took up harp playing many years ago. His version of The Parting Glass is tearjerkingly good. I needed to convince a friend who knows nada about the Incredible String Band let alone old style harp based folk music to come with me at short notice. How do you sell this gig?
Using youtube you will find that he is a slightly eccentric looking, very slightly portly man who holds court in intimate looking fireplace gigs from time to time. Usually with a huge concert harp and drum powered with foot-pedal. A real life psychedelic Dumbledore and magician of a man. He shuns much of the ISB material for which he is most famous, preferring to do his newer thing, reinterpretations of obscure folk songs and interesting covers. Ace of Spades by Motorhead? Harp and drum version? You betcha! You have to come and see this incredibly important string plucking one man band!
Persuaded, we went across to the Arches in Glasgow.
Mike Hastings and Solveig provided support (The Pendulums/Trembling Bells). “My fingirs are culd” Solveig said as she is Norwegian and not used to the Scottish Spring weather. Guitar and fiddle music. Great playing, beautiful stuff. They are the next generation, true heirs to the House Of Jansch.
Then Robin Williamson:
The lighting cast 10 foot shadow of a harp and hands left and right sides of the cave walls.
Then in front of us, he patiently, intensely, at leisure and vigorously played and sang his songs. Most with harp and pedal drum. Some with acoustic guitar. All old songs sounded new and all new sounded old and they were all timeless beauties of whimsical fancy. Always loosely freewheelin’ and always in control. This is a master of his craft.
The song choice betrays a man with a tonne of confidence and a real artistic independence where he can avoid playing his best known ISB songs in favour of keeping people entertained by playing incredibly obscure folk archive songs, some of which that are 400 years old in the folk tradition, “I’ve added a couple of my own verses too”.
What were the songs called? I haven’t a clue, I wasn’t taking notes! He did ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ somewhere in the middle. A quick story: Bob Dylan once described one of Robin’s songs as “Quite Good”. Rather than be damned by faint praise, “I’ve been using that in my publicity ever since” he says.
For the encore some people started calling out for the Hedgehog Song. “I won’t do that for two reasons, one I didn’t write it and two I can’t remember how it goes”. Aha, a schoolboy error! That was written by his old String Band pal MIKE Heron. So I shouted for Ace of Spades. My dear companion, slightly befuddled but having loved the gig picked up on my enthusiasm and REALLY shouted ACE OF SPADES!! at the long grey haired folk royalty on stage. It felt like he was shouting requests to Lemmy from the back of a Motorhead gig to the affront of most of the crowd! I slouch deep into my seat. We will soon be stared to death. “Now that is something I could have a go at” said Robin. Phew. The crowd are baffled and Robin launches gently into ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. It sounded a bit like this:
He needs a better publicist. But it was better than quite good. It was better than Bob Dylan.
I went into HMV for the first time in ages last week. The one next door to Waterstones on Prince’s Street. They’re selling signed slip-cased limited edition (of 1000) copies of ‘Telling Stories’ by Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess. RRP £25. £16 at HMV. What a bargain! It appears to be limited distribution too. Only HMV seem to sell it.
Still, it’s cheap at the price and I look forward to reading it. 3 friends and I grew up and suddenly matured listening to one Charlatans album in particular in Peterheid. That time evoked memories of ‘Stand By Me’ even then and much more now. Ahh! Nostalgia now seems to get in the way of the point of this.
Having taken the book to the counter and saw some of the merchandise it was clear that HMV has changed. It sells the full Mars back-catalogue. Pump up the volume!
Er no.. More like Twix/Snickers/Bounty and The Milky Ways! This is not how I remembered it.
HMV has expanded into headphones and sweets and fizzy juice, moving the music out of the way to make room. I don’t mind a struggling company coming up with new revenue streams. Just, for me, the range of sweets and juice is really limited for such a large shop. You won’t find a Curly Wurly in HMV! Midget gems? Records? Sports Mixtures? None of these. And with Woolworths gone, the Pick ‘N’ Mix high street market is wide open.
The broader context of this blog is a sadness that the last huge high street chain music shop is dying.
They have made a loss 2 years in a row. This means they aren’t able to pay the interest on their massive debt. If it was not for an emergency loan by their bank, they would already be in administration. They have already been forced by their lenders to close shops (landlords have priority over lenders for any money owed should you go bust). They are being forced to sell the only profitable part of the business, HMV Live (The HMV Playhouse) -Which, I honestly think, has become one of the best large venues in Edinburgh. They don’t own (m)any? shops. Their stock is bought with debt. They’re doomed unless they get half of their £160,000,000+ debt cancelled. Universal are now selling HMV their artists albums cheap to try to prop the ailing HMV up but with a hint of Schadenfreude, I fear the worst.
The name and logo will live on. The company itself has been sold and chopped up internationally many times so ownership of it varies between countries. Bright pink neon for the UK. Bright pink prices. I’ve pulled a few £15.99 HMV stickers off of a few 15 year old CDs. In today’s money, that is at least £25. What were we thinking? What were they thinking? Why didn’t they buy their own premises with the cash? Why didn’t they use it to invent digital music players?
The HMV brand in the UK was sold by off EMI which has faced a very similar problem. Henry Rollins spotted what the problem was some year ago.
Sentimentally, I always see the HMV brand opposite our shop in The Gramophone Emporium’s window. Nipper the dog listening to a big horn. They were the company which pressed the best 78 rpm records, the label that signed the best artists and they went on to manufacture the best machines to play them on. Their Classical vinyl repertoire is hard to beat and sought after by collectors worldwide. This step back in time represents the firms golden age and is a reminder of the reasons why the brand managed to get so big in the first place.
I asked George if we should maybe expand and sell chewing gum. If maybe VoxBox could do well with a Wrigley’s chewing gum stand at our counter. “We’ll even sell more ‘All Right Now’ singles to a certain age group” I said. “Complete silence and a funny look…” George said. So, that was a really strange and thankfully short business meeting.
The Black Keys took 10 years and 11 albums to finally get mainstream Radio 1 airplay.
Hold on, 11 Albums? There are 8 albums isn’t it there innit. You get meh? OK, you got meh and that like innit. But add to that Dan’s solo effort. Patrick’s Drummers album and The Blakroc hip hop experiment and we can add it up to eleven. It’s really good for some of us to go up to eleven.
Isn’t that really strange though?
I found them at album 3 after actually listening to one of those free CDs you find on the cover of Uncut magazine. Lucky it was at the beginning of the CD or I may have missed it. After a few listens I bought the album, Rubber Factory. It’s a top album with really raw and powerful riff based guitar and passionate vocal delivery. Everything else by them before and since has been really fecking good too.
The pair have been touring for ages and now they’ve finally made it. I’d seen them in the Queens Hall a few years ago. That was the 2nd time they’d been there!
So I saw them again at the Corn (Com? those r and ns really run into each other) Exchange and there was a massive young crowd really digging it.
So why did it take so long for this really great dynamic duo to make it? Twuo reasons.
An appearance on Later With Jools Holland in 2010.
And Radio 1 radio play later with 2011.
I only listen to Radio 1 in the car as I’m not driving yet and it’s not my car. Boom boom. But hey Jeeze they played the El Camino track Lonely Boy a lot. It has been on all the time and the presenters fawned over how great they are. Really nice! The same presenters are now all over One Direction.
I’m incredibly naive. I really hope you are too dear reader as I don’t want to be alone in this.
I thought that radio played the best tunes that were released or discovered that week. Tunes sent in by bands trying to plug their new CD and luckily picked up by a dutiful BBC staffer and passed on to Chris Moyles and co. as a you must play this you awful fat tongued horrible man cause this band made my brain make me shake.
It came as a massive revelation and realisation that radio show presenters don’t call the tunes. Someone else picks the tunes and tells the DJs what to play.
If you can find the right person (‘s penis?), you are in. What is the criteria and who are the people choosing the bands? Some folk who are a little too easily influenced I think. John Peel is sadly missed. The Black Keys did a Peel session in 2003…. After he died in 2004. Nada.
Also wEirDLy enough. Most music is at least tolerable. If you play a song enough you may well begin to like it. (Less likely if you are in in Guantanamo Bay).
There are really weird bits in the 14 minutes of The Incredible String Band masterpiece A Very Cellular Song. Give that a baby a few listens and it can reach a semi religious experience.
So, today. I want to plug Frightened Rabbit. What? Not the String Band?
Who on earth are they? And so on.
Look at wikipedia or their website if you want a bio.
Feart Rubbit are 3 albums into this. Why should we wait till 11?
There are 2 great albums within those three albums. The songwriting is often incredible. Much more and better than Gary Barlow’s lipstick mark upon his coffee cup type of thing.
Think more of a mash of Bruce Springsteen in the 80’s colliding with Blood on the Tracks Bob Dylan.
Yes, it really is that good. True poetry in music.
I’ve been stalking FR’s Scott and Co for a while. I saw them on their Highland tour in Forres. -In a small venue. They shape like the bow of a ship. All are getting beardy like antarctic explorers and they perform as if they are at the prow of the Titanic. A group of musicians not trying to placate the drowning with calming tunes but to try to sweat and sing the bloody iceberg away with the sheer force of will.
On the cusp and Jesus is just a Spanish boy’s name. this band really deserves mainstream radio play and one play may be all that they need.
We signed up to RSD 2012 only when we found that some of the releases would be easily available to us through the smaller distributors. It is the distributors not the labels that provide the releases to the shops. I’m told there are around 30. I’d given up trying to get them in the months prior to RSD as I couldn’t find out who the distributors were for the biggest record companies.
Warner/EMI/Sony/Universal. Can we open an account? Who is your distributor? Predictably and very naively on my part, I didn’t get a reply from these guys at all (why would they? Really, why would they?)
You too can enjoy this laborious process. First try finding one on Google. Try emailing them. Then try emailing the bands. Try the record label. Email them. Email Universal for instance. No reply? Telephone Universal… You may speak to a nice person who may helpfully advise you to send them an email, they will look out for it. And wait.
Through some luck voxbox@live.co.uk started getting emails from the smaller distributors. This was it. At last we’re on a mailing list! This year we will do Record Store Day!
This was three weeks before Record Store Day.
When friends of the shop Andy and Paddy from Gerry Loves Records and Ian of Song, by Toad found out about the plan then took the idea of staging an event and ran with it faster than Meatloaf running out of hell flapping his flaming arms like a bat on fire chasing a tasty flaming and bloodied running meatloaf. They three were really very impressive.
Before the end of the day PAWS were coming through from Glasgow to be do a gig for us on RSD. Neil Pennycook of Meursault would be joining in too with an in-store. A poster was designed in no time and sent to me for printing and distribution. I am the weakest link. Most of the posters were available for the customers as a souvenir on the day. Limited edition of 100! They look good enough to keep though. When PAWS and Meursault make it they’ll be nice for the collectors and fans to have too. Andy did a fine design job and is himself a handsome man.
The fantastic 3 piece rockers, PAWS.
Neil Pennycook of Meursault -acoustic set in shop at 1500
PAWS at 1600 at a secret location. (The pristine and beautiful Those Were the Days Vintage clothes shop down the road)
We’re on! Now we need some records.. We bought a selection of what we could from a handful of distributors. (two). The accounts were opened and the choices were decided upon while on holiday in Orkney with limited internet access. George was away in Cyprus and I had free reign to carefully randomly pick the titles. But there was a problem:
Those Were The Days can’t do it due to logistics.
I worked my way down our fine street.
The Baillie can’t do it.
The Saint is closed for refurbishment
The Antiquary has gigs often, I’ll ask there -the landlady is away.
Three days to go. No records. “We’re still waiting for BRMC to arrive before we ship your box”. This is terrifying. The Antiquary says, “Are they young?”, “aye”, “then yes”. Try Purslane for food. “No problem”. Phew.
Finally a box arrives on Thursday. I need to sort these out. Mmm not too bad.
Friday arrives. Another box! I need to price these but only after I poster some of the town. It is coming together. Ian’s girlfriend has made VoxBoxMusic cupcakes. Nice. It will be OK.
The sweetest things.
Paddy calls. PAWS can’t make it! Someone forgot to tell Josh the drummer and he has other plans.
Two days to go and after some last minute behind the scenes something, PAWS can make it again but the latest they can come on is 3pm. That’s fine. Seriously it is. It is incredibly fine. Another call and Yusuf Azak will do an acoustic set in the afternoon. We’re back on!
Come the day. We need bags. Up at 0830 to get carrier bags. I print out 10 copies of the list of RSD records we have to give to the queuing people so they won’t waiting for things we don’t have. At 0930, driving down Frederick Street it is worrying that there may be a crowd of soon to be disappointed people. Turning the corner it becomes worrying that there is no-one there at all. Nada.
Zoop.
Safehouse guitarist John Bruce arrives early to lend a hand controlling the crowd. Two people are outside. This is a queue or 2 outside of VoxBox! I can say people were queuing to get in. When I opened the door at 1025, within 2 minutes we were suddenly full and heaving. There had been more people nearby. Someone asked, “Do you have the Arctic Monkeys?” And strangely and happily, yes we did.
Epilogue:
The day was a roaring success. The shop was busy all day and the atmosphere was terrific. There were lots of new faces. Some who had never heard of our shop until they found us on the RSD website. I’ve grown to appreciate Twitter and Facebook for it’s reach in finding people and communicating the changing plans.
The guys from Song, by Toad and Gerry Loves Records were really instrumental in making the day such a fun event. I cannot thank them enough. The artists on their books for me were the best part of the day.
Yusuf Azak played a fine acoustic set in the shop to entertain the punters. A great voice and phrasing. It’s clichéd to say but he was reminiscent of a young Bob Dylan. Saying that he did do a Bob and the Band cover in tribute to Levon Helm of The Band who passed away last week.
PAWS were fantastic. They were LOUD. They put on a high energy performance that blew the roof off of the ‘Tic. Iggy and the Stooges would be proud. Strangely enough, I’m told Iggy once frequented the Antiquary.
Neil from Meursault played straight after. More subdued than PAWS but incredibly intense. One man with guitar and compelling and fine lyrics.
I heard two people arguing after that: “PAWS are the best band in Scotland just now!”, “No PAWS are good but Meursault are the best band in Scotland!” Sadly the performances were not filmed. If you were there, I’m sure you’ll feel the same -that something really special was happening and that you may have seen the top 2 performing artists in Scotland at the ‘Tic on St Stephen Street on Record Store Day 2012.
VoxBox would like to invite everyone over to celebrate Record Store Day 2012.
We’ll have some of the exclusive records for RSD12. We’ll be open at 10.30am to sell the limited records as well as some rare second hand records from our collection, as well as our usual fine selection of second hand vinyl (and CDs). The party will go on all day though, food and drinks to help us all celebrate.
Gerry Loves Records and Song, by Toad will be selling their full back catalogues, including the last few copies of some releases. There will be free samplers to give away and special package deals. There will also be a few of the super limited Cath Records tapes.
There will be a couple more surprises too.
PAWS
(FatCat Records)
PAWS will be playing at 3pm in a venue very close by. They’ll be playing a selection that will include songs from their forthcoming EP and album on FatCat (home of Frightened Rabbit, Twilight Sad, WWPJ, Sigur Ros and many more). Get one of the last few copies of their split 7″ with Lady North, and some of their tape series.
We’ll have a couple of live performances.
NEIL PENNYCOOK
(Meursault)
Neil from Meursault will be playing acoustic in the shop (or on the steps outside if the weather is good) at 4pm. He’ll no doubt have some songs from the soon-to-be-released third Meursault album on Song, by Toad. Snap up the first two Meursault albums in the meantime in the shop.
Please spread the word to any of your record loving pals. We hope to see you at the shop on Saturday.
We joined RSD at short notice this year and weren’t in time to set up accounts with the major distributors. They are difficult to find and then difficult to contact. The day isn’t really about the product is it? OK we’ll get more in next year.
Nevertheless we have a selection of RSD titles…
2 many DJs As heard on Radio Soulwax 2LP
Caitlin Rose Piledriver wattz 7″
David Lynch, Noah’s Ark MOBY remix 12″
Gruff Rhys/Le B Gold Medal Win 7″
James Yorkston Moving Up.. 2LP
John Cale Extra Playful EP
King Creosote 7″
She and Him Volume 1 LP
Tallest Man on Earth King of Spain 12″
Flogging Molly Drunken Lullaby 7″
Animal Collective Transverse Tem…. 12″
Arctic Monkeys RU Mine 7″ coloured vinyl
Hot Chip Night and Day 12″
Edward Sharp 7″
White Stripes 7″ coloured vinyl
Electric Prunes 7″
Steven Wilson
Radical Face Roots LP
The Waterboys 7″
June Tabor/Oysterband Love Will Tear us Apart 7″
Richard Thompson 7″
Isis Red Sea 12″
T.Rex Coloured 7″ Telegram Sam/Metal Guru
The Beat Coloured 7″Mirror in the Bathroom
Sugar 7’If i ca’t change your Mind
Cookie Duster Two Feet Stand up
Doomriders/Sweet Cobra Girl U Want/Gates of…
Pelican/Playing Enemy Split 7″
BRMC Howl Sessions LP
BRMC Howl LP
Gang of Four Solid Gold LP
Ride Going Blank Again LP
Jeff the Brotherhood Upstairs at united vol 3 12″
Blundetto Walk Away Now 12″
Anthony Joseph & the Spasm Band Started Off as a Dancer 12″
Nerina Pallot
Mad Men 7″
Last Shop Standing book by Graham Jones
Vinylmania DVD Official film for RSD
We also have Jack White’s new solo single on 7″
Also some new Ltd Edition bits and pieces.
Motorhead live at the BBC and in session vols 1 and 2. Hawkwind In search of Space. Beefheart. Early Dylan, Rare Nina Simone, Tom Waits, Bob Marley, Sex Pistols, Bowie, Kinks, Nirvana, Neil Young -live albums
Many are 2LP sets.
As well a nice selection of blues LPs from Howlin Wolf to Blind Willie McTell and Lead Belly.
The usual top quality used vinyl too.
Shop opens at 1030 as usual although I’ll be in beforehand.
George sends his apologies as he can’t make it due to attending the christening of his 2nd grandchild in Ireland.
I sold a copy of The Beatles Let It Be to a ten year old boy.
In itself that is only slightly interesting, maybe a little unusual -even illegal**. But there’s more to this.
The mum and dad and their young lad came into the shop and after a short while browsing, there was a definite focusing on the Beatles section. Some discussion… A bit more discussion.. (they took a long time). Eventually, all decided. Boy picks record. Mum pulls out purse. Boy expertly fishes £10 from said purse and he brought it with a (very nice) copy of Let It Be to the counter.
Jammy sod! I found out that this was the 1st album and also the very 1st record he had bought. A kind of JFK, back and to the left, landmark moment and he made a good choice too. Many of us are not lucky enough to choose a great and classic album.*
Only a few days later and a similar thing happened. Once again a young family enter the VoxBox record shop. The parents are again young (around my age – 34 or so). Guessing, the boy is again 10 years of age. This time, there is much less discussion. He’s done this before?! It even looks like he knows what he wants. He picks a record. Brings record to mum. Mum leans down and mum’s purse opens again. With record in one hand, cash in the other the boy leaves his parents to come to the counter. Bish bash Bonzo! It’s Led Zeppelin IV! It’s ZoSo! It is a wonderful moment! And what a bloody fantastic choice young man!
So, is there is something happening here? It seems young mums are using purses again and children are buying records. Is this the 1980s? Serious childhood flashbacks of holidays at Butlins.
Our shop is next door to ReLove -our friends and a very nice baby shop. Perhaps because of that, we are regularily seeing pushchairs in and outside the shop. But the purses?
Finally, a family of 4 came in within that very same week. The parents are again definitely young. (under or around 34 -like young me)
Their baby is in a pushchair. The young boy this time must be six years old and is clearly shy of strangers. While pops goes browsing in the Back Room I attempt conversation with the wandering lad. More terrified of him than he is of me I ask the wee man “Do you like records?” Schtumm. Oh no! No answer. Mum smiles. Hmm. This might work instead: “Do you like the Beatles?” He thinks, then shakes his head. Lips clamped tight. Schtumm again. Well maybe… “The Kinks or the Rolling Stones?” Nope. Head shake and tight lipped again. Finally and curiously I asked him: “Who do you like?”
He pointed to an album on the shelf. This one:
“I like them!” he said and later went on to point out the bushy bearded hairy bushed hairy face of Jerry Garcia. I had just met probably the youngest Grateful Dead fan in the world for the album above which he pointed out and identified was indeed The Grateful Dead ‘Live Dead’.
And Yes! That made my day!
*Most of us will have embarrasing 1st records!
My firsts at 45rpm were: The Simpsons – Do The Bartman bought with 2 in a Room – Wiggle It from Woolworths in 1990. Not good but not too bad for a 13 year old. Darn the pop charts!
**We have a Second Hand Dealers License which stipulates that we are not allowed to buy items from, or sell items to, persons below 16 years of age. We are also not allowed to keep a smelting pot in the shop.
Last week I was asked to come to an informal pub music DJ night at McClachlan’s Bar in Canonmills. “Bring some records, we’ll give anyone a 40 minute set, it’s this Friday”. Every record shop person kind of likes this idea. Finally a chance to showcase your finest tunes and impeccable taste. Gain a bit of respekt and kudos and so on. Still a terrifying prospect for the novice.
Reluctantly jumping at the chance, I pulled out some fine 45s on Thursday night. Let me see…. for a 40 minute set, say 2 minutes per song to be on the safe side, that makes 20 records, and what if they don’t like Duelling Banjos? Can I save the day with Falco? Amadeus? Amadeus? Argh? Madeus?
Bugger, I’d better bring some serious afficionado music too. Interesting covers of classic tunes. Where are the soul records?! Ah but then, it’s a proper pub. Should I bring some Rod Stewart and Dire Straits?
In the end I brought 55 records -probably 3 hours of music as a safety net and comfort blanket. Bring them up with some high tempo tunes. Impress them with some obscurities. Throw in the odd soul ballad, plateau at a steady bass groove and seamlessly hit them either with some punkiness or 60s guitar bands.* Throw in Magic Bus by The Who and now we’re rocking!
The Who is this guy?:
I needn’t have worried so much. It was a real mix of people from those older folks who just wanted to go to the pub and had no idea about the event and also the younger musos who brought a lot of good cheer Friday night youth to the pub as well as an eclectic selection of music.
Laura and Dave were on before me. Soul, Rockabilly Elvis, Batman and some Nancy and Lee. Very Nice.
By the time my set came I was pretty lubricated and after being shown how to work the setup, fired my carefully chosen babies off with a little bit of tweaking along the way.
The time flew in, I never managed to play the set I’d planned. No Dueling Banjos, Magic Bus or Falco. Not even the M.A.R.R.S. Pump up the Volume as a screw you guys I’m going home safety. But, all was well recieved (most of the crowd continued talking to one another without asking for change for the jukebox, so that is some kind of success). The barman even asked for the tunes to be turned up. Phew!
Next up, Scott played some Cilla Black and Tony Christie. Some great sounds by bad artists. Brilliant thinking and what it’s all about. There is nothing like confessing your guilty pleasures and finding out that others secretly love that stuff too. Be brave people! Get out to the next extravaganza with a box full of your favourites. Ridicule is nothing to be scared of.
It made me wish I’d played some Jim Reeves. He’ll Have To Go!
Anyone? Are you with my on this? Please! Anyone??!
*The 1st VoxBox setlist: 1. John Kongos, He’s Gonna Step on You Again; 2. Bobby Byrd, I Know You Got Soul; 3. Johnny Nash, You Got Soul; 4. Rufus Thomas, Turn Your Damper Down; 5.The Isley Brothers, Black Berries Pt 1; 6. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, I Had It Made; 7. James Brown, Just Won’t Do Right 8. Ken Boothe, Hallelujah 9.De La Soul, The Magic Number 10. Slim Harpo, Scratch My Back, 11. Ricky Nelson, Summertime 12. Nightshift (Neil Gammack) Don’t Rush The Good Things 13. PiL, This Is Not A Love Song (didn’t play -too slippy) 14. Deee-Lite, Groove Is In The Heart
Monkee and diminuitive cheeky chappie Davy Jones died this week after suffering a massive heart attack. But did you know that short people are 50% more likely to have a heart attack than tall people? There was a study in 2010 in the European Heart Journal…
The systematic review and meta-analysis, carried out by Finnish researchers, looked at evidence from 52 studies of over three million people and found that short adults were approximately 1.5 times more likely to develop cardiovascular heart disease and die from it than were tall people.
Anyway this is not an obituary or medical blog. So back to the music.
After watching the top 40 today. I was surprised at how much of the music was bland and uninspiring impotent homogenous pap. This reminded me of something Frank Zappa had spoken about many years ago. Watch this!
Frank talk:
This was before the Pop Factor(y) shows yet he hits the nail on the head and describes the ascent of a Simon Cowell character who will not take any risks. (For instance Cowell has had his “acts” Robson and Jerome, Gareth Gates and Susan Boyle all cover Unchained Melody). Cowell too started as the coffee boy and became an A&R man before inventing the talent show.
There’s little wrong with manufactured pop if the delivery is good. It can look and sound great. Some of the Monkees back catalogue is superb. The mighty Motown was really a pop music factory and neither Elvis nor Sinatra were songwriters themselves. It is all about the choons and they had the best songwriters on the payroll. So of course the music sounded good. The hit factory conveyorbelt approach just isn’t (and wasn’t) innovative enough. I’d even suggest that these days, they are running out of song ideas. It’s hardly surprising that people are less inclined to pay for this junk.
I’m not saying bring back nostalgia or lamenting the old days and The Stone Roses (more on them later). I was just genuinely taken aback by the lack of imagination and the slickness of the videos.
Indeed, there was a saying in the music business that you can’t polish a turd. After watching the filler in the chart countdown today I’m positive that there are some smelly dusters under the sinks of the major labels.
It may cheer up some music lovers to know that 3 quarters of JLS are under five foot six.
I bumped into Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band while walking to the shop 2 weeks ago today. I’d been to see Mike when the Mike Heron Band played in an intimate House Concert last year. It was a fine show. My good friend, a Johnny Cash lookalike, leaned over a bannister during the intermission and said “Hey, Mike! What’s Vashti Bunyan up to these days?” A question that could knock you off your stool. Mike without blinking went with it and surprisingly actually knew what Vashti Bunyan was up to. They went on to have a nice civilised and grown up chat.
When I bumped into Mike 2 weeks ago I started with “Hi Robin!” (His name clearly is not Robin, it is Mike) and it went awkwardly downhill from there. After a few surprised words from me, “saw you before, erm, any new gigs? only stopped as I recognised you but er.. don’t have anything to say.” Mike was civil and later carried on uphill towards George Street and I went down down down, down the hill to VoxBox all the while kicking myself in despair feeling like an ass.
Why share this painful experience?
Well, Mike (Mike) Mike Heron is playing with the MikeHeron Band very soon. At the Queen’s Hall in fact, on the 18th of March. Andrew Greig provides poetic support. It will be an intimate gig, seating around 100 in the Upstairs Bar area. But why is this relevant to you if you are not already a fan?
Well, it is because it was such a good concert back then in November 2011. Perfect.
The House Concert gig was one of the best things that I have seen and heard. My knowledge of the Mike Heron and the Incredible String Band’s back catalogue was quite patchy, yet the music was sublime to virgin ears. His band plays exquisitely. It includes Mike’s daughter Georgia who also added backing vocals and a solo performance. Each and every song was a gem and a real privilege to hear. A true experience, like being let into a very special, secret and safe place for just a peek before being allowed to leave 2 hours later giddy and speechless.
So this is a kind of gig review and a definite tip. See this event and I’m sure you’ll love it.
After 2 weeks, I feel less silly and Everything Is Fine Right Now.
P.S. If The Queen’s Hall sells out, I have two spare tickets for readers of this. Just get in touch.
VoxBox Music became the newest record shop in the world on May 21st 2011. We buy and sell vinyl and other formats of music. We are independent and sell mostly pre-owned records although we are slowly branching into new vinyl too.
