PLAYLIST 81 uploaded July 5, 2020
and is 86% vinyl friendly. Impressive.
Roughly £80 to buy, so think how little it cost to make… and the quality of the parts involved?!? In other words, you’d be mad to grab one of these for anything other than slightly thrashed vinyl, a kids intro to the world of the medium… or more likely, out and about crate digging… but maybe only in the ‘Less than a Pound’-type racks. Cute looking, an over-the-shoulder (strap) number, it’s a ‘Messenger’ Portable Record Player, from Crosley
Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms ‘tweak’/edit/chop/etc.
Lyric of Playlist 81…
is actually an album title.
The Best Things In Life Aren’t Things. Very probably true.
00.00
(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983 Episode #1 for info.
00.40
NEW ORDER – Angel Dust – Brotherhood, LP – Factory – 1986
In their live set for a while (around the time of Brotherhood’s release, understandably) but a bit of a lost gem since.
04.12
NADINE SHAH – Fool – 12″ – Apollo – 2015
Heart-shaped vinyl that would have been on our Winkles club night turntables if it had existed thirty plus years previous.
08.13
MASSEY Vs SIR HORATIO (A CERTAIN RATIO) – Music Control (Original Mix) * – 12″ – Sprechen – 2020
This just smacks you between the ears, in a very good way. A limited edition of 300 numbered, white label, 33 ⅓ RPM, hand-stamped copies to be had. Manchester On It!
12.45
DAFT PUNK – Face To Face (Original Version) – Promo only ‘Rare Remixes’ 12″ – Virgin – 2003
The sort of vocal cut ups use I loved a decade earlier in the house arena, with MK/Mark Kinchen being maybe the finest exponent. Sometimes, gobbledygook can just do the job better.
16.17
THOMAS LEER – Choices – Contradictions, 2×12″ LP – Cherry Red – 1982
All the above tracks would have been spun in my time of DJ’ing, if they’d existed but this definitely was. Leer at his classy best. Inching closer to the (full on?) commercial leanings of his Scale Of Ten album, Contradictions was a notable move on from his days with Robert Rental. My only Leer anecdote is that sometime in the early 90s I walked past him at a Westbourne Grove (London) petrol station, as he was filling up an old Rover – or a car something like it. It was the sort of moment you just want to cooly turn back and quietly catch his ear with a ‘Cheers for some fabulous music‘ and then walk on… but I didn’t.
22.07
GLOBO – Autosleeper 2 – 12″ b-side – Hydrogen Dukebox – 1994
Sounding like Scanner gone electro. It’s all out there in the ether… you just have to know where to grab it. Is our ‘guest vocalist’ drunk, on medication or… ? We’ll never know. Did he even know, and more relevant to here, did he ever get to know he was floating under/over these beats? I’m guessing not.
26.38
WIRE – Advantage In Height – Snakedrill 12″ EP – Mute – 1986
It took me until 2010 to see Wire live – the Lexington, in London and then it was only because Lonelady were supporting. The ‘angular’ thing a bit less in your face than with the Gang Of Four… but still very sharp? Wire were.
Underground (mag) #2, May ’87
29.23
THE CUTLER – Burn The Bankers – The Best Things In Life Aren’t Things, CD only – Steel Tiger – 2012
Sounding more wistful than the title would suggest, if you know former Fila Brazillia man, Steve Cobby, the title here will have been infused with more genuine venom than most of the others he’s had to dream up. By the way, a photo of a CD is rare in these parts, but as it’s Steve…
32.56
AU PAIRS – No More Secret Lives (Demo) – Stepping Out Of Line: The Anthology, 2CD only – Castle Music – 2006
Labelled as a demo here (and I say as much on the show) but this could be one and the same NMSL performance as a Janice Long radio session track that then appeared on the band’s expanded Sense & Sensuality CD re-release from 1993. I don’t have the latter, so something to check out at another time.
38.09
THE TWINKLE BROTHERS – Don’t Jump The Fence – The Original Mix, The Twinkle Brothers And Friends, LP – Twinkle Music – 1992
Roots reggae gold!
42.22
RÓISÍN MURPHY – Scarlet Ribbons – Overpowered, LP – EMI – 2007
Lyrically, an ode to a father I reckon, and from a good bit down the road of life. There was also a fifties standard called Scarlet Ribbons that I remember hearing in the Hickey household in the sixties – maybe Harry Belafonte’s or possibly Val Doonican’s version. I think my mum loved it and I could see the Murphy household of the time falling for it, as well. The Irish love a lilt, so maybe another reason for Róisín to be sounding a bit reflective?
Judging by the price an original vinyl copy of this album now commands – ‘Pink or orange, madam?‘ – there were less copies pressed than were initially needed. Hence a 2012 re press was in order.
47.46
STAC – Only If We Go Somewhere – Soundcloud only? – 2019
Beloved of the Wah Wah 45’s boys early on, even allowing for the vagaries of the music biz I’m not sure why this gal hasn’t made more music. Here, floated out on Soundcloud she’s off on a ‘wonky electro funk’ sort of vibe and here you can find other, more available sounds from her.
52.07
THE FLIRTATIONS – Nothing But A Heartache – 7″ – Deram – 1968
Still sounding forceful, this got a lot of spins on the ‘music centre’ in my bedroom when I was a teenager.
54.40
LUSCIOUS JACKSON – CitySong (N.Y. State Of The World) – 12″ – Grand Royal – 1997
The NY girls get extra sassy on orange vinyl.
58.21
FELA (ANIKULAPO) KUTI – Army Arrangement * – LP/12″ – Celluloid – 1985
Fela? I think I went down the ‘Feela’ route on the show, but hey. Seeing as Kuti spent the late seventies married simultaneously to twenty eight women (later scaled back to just the twelve) it’s unsurprising his take here on Nigeria’s push to free itself of the military rule it was under at the time had to wait a few years to get released.
A half time tea in the Irish countryside.
01.07.16
BRIAN ENO – DAVID BYRNE – The Jezebel Spirit – 12″ – Sire – 1981
Also on the My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts album… but sort of purer here.
01.12.00
MANICURED NOISE – Long March – Northern Stories 1978/80, LP – Caroline True Records – 2006
Not unlike Metronome, the tune they’re possibly best known for, this is one of a batch the band didn’t get to release way back but were all grouped together on the above compilation. Their only album, the vinyl version is cheap and readily available. 🙂
01.15.05
EYELESS IN GAZA – Out From The Day-To-Day – Caught In Flux/The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers – 12″ EP, promo only – Cherry Red – 1981
Somewhere out there (not that I’ve ever seen a copy) there’s a 12″ test pressing of the five track ‘Eyes Of Beautiful Losers’ sides of this double package that would be cool to own one day. This track? Storming punk funk!
01.17.59
THE WOODENTOPS – Why Why Why (Live) – Live Hypnobeat Live, LP – Rough Trade – 1986
I’ve said it before elsewhere but this band always sounded like they were a bit late on needing to be somewhere else. Chill out chaps.
01.22.50
JAPAN – Adolescent Sex (Re-recorded version) – 7″ – Hansa International – 1978
I can thank one Brenda Rollo for introducing me to Japan – just in time to still catch them live in their New York Dolls-looking phase on a couple of gigs. Joined the fan club (member #057)… had the t-shirt – an Obscure Alternatives (album) one, I think… and paid a good few quid for Japanese Music Life mags they were (maybe unsurprisingly) featured in, though it took a while to work out why the mags looked so weird… as the back is actually the front… which didn’t really matter too much as I can’t read Japanese.
And it sort of makes sense to own Japanese Japan.
01.26.58
NUYORICAN SOUL (feat JOCELYN BROWN) – It’s Alright, I Feel It (MAW 12″ Mix) – Talkin Loud – 1997
Like ‘Bouncing Jazz Gospel’ but minus any religion angle in the lyrics, and a joyous counter to the lightning speed, Roni Size mix spun on a previous 41 Rooms show.
01.31.52
THE B-52’s – Hot Pants Explosion – Good Stuff, LP – Reprise – 1992
It’s arguable which is the more instantly recognisable vocal; Fred Schneider’s lead or Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson’s harmonies.
01.36.39
BIM – Factory – 12″ – Swerve Records – 1982
Definitely one of those records that sounds ‘safer’/more mainstream now than it did at the time, not that it was anything anarchic back then. A band that, it seems, nearly had as many producers-to-be as it did members.
01.41.00
INSPIRAL CARPETS – Bitches Brew – Promo only 7″ – Mute – 1992
He may have gone a bit quiet of late but Tom Hingley’s vocal always reminds me of Pete Wylie – they’ve both got that confidence in their instrument – and besides a Spanish promo 7″ I think this is the only other way to get this fab tune into a 7″ box!
01.44.27
KUTIMAN – This Is How I Feel – Youtube only – 2014
If you want to feel good about the day just head over (not right now!) to Youtube for this tune and read the comments… or indeed those on any Kutiman track that has his signature ‘bunch of peeps plucked from the net’ vibe going on.
01.47.26
RAE & CHRISTIAN – 1975 – Mercury Rising, 2LP – Night Time Tales, LateNightStories – 2013
The goddess-like vocal presence of Veba may be conspicuous by its absence here but R&C are still able to knock out some great tunes.
01.53.11
VIRGIN PRUNES – Red Nettle – An Extended Play, 12″ EP – The Grey Area / Mute – 2004…
or in reality for me, first spotted here, on the first in a series of free v/artists cassettes included with the NME in the early eighties.
Ticket #1, Bedford Boys Club, Dec 14, 1985
And one does need an appropriate foil when ending a show with the following….
01.55.14
JOY DIVISION – Dead Souls – Licht Und Blindheit 7″ – Sordide Sentimental – 1980
I’ve probably spent the last eighty 41 Rooms’ shows quietly trying not to play Dead Souls. It’s often come into the frame a lot when I’ve been piecing shows together (a couple of the most recent ones, as it happens) but then been sidelined, usually because I couldn’t find anything in the vaults I felt right playing in to or out of the track with it. It’s that powerful a sound with me. Hearing it for the first time on John Peel… then seeing the super 8 cine film Richard Boon shot of Joy Division performing the song in their Buzzcocks tour support slot at Manchester Apollo… the lengthy, teasing rise and fall intro… and Ian Curtis.
Below: Extract from From Heaven to Heaven, New Order Live, The Early Years (1981-1984) at Close Quarters.
I’m not exactly sure when John Peel first played the Joy Division, Sordide Sentimental 7″ but it’s very likely it would have been sometime around the single’s March ‘80 release. I do, though, remember him making a reference to the limited pressing of 1578 having some significant historical date connection. He then added that the single was pretty much sold out. Both ‘Dead Souls’ and ‘Atmosphere’ blew me away, so I was desperate to get a copy. A printers’ strike in late May/early June ‘80 meant that certain magazines weren’t on the news stands for a few weeks. With no other obvious route to
try and get hold of the single, that might account for why it took until the June 21 edition of the NME before I managed to get something in the Records Wanted section of its personal ads. At 20p a word, Joy Division: “Atmosphere” (Sordid {sic} label), along with my name, address and phone number, was short and to the point. And on a warm evening, further along, I got a phone call. It was Yves Von Bontee of Sordide Sentimental. He’d seen the NME and sensing I might be a fan of some determination to have gone to the trouble of paying for an ad in the music press, he was offering me the last copy of the single they had in the office! Apart from having noted the efforts involved in his generosity, I weighed up that the call from France had likely cost him more than the single had been retailing for! I gushed thanks and had my money in the post the next day. Whatever happened it didn’t reach him first time around but got returned to me weeks later, at which point I must have panicked and maybe even possibly called the label, as I then received a letter from Yves. It included the calming words, “Don’t worry as I told you on the phone there is one Joy Division aside for you even if it’s now sold out” and he finished by saying, “Thanks for enjoying our productions. I hope you buy it just for the music and inside work and not for the rarities and collection…” The second time of asking, my money did reach him and although personal tragedy had, in the meantime, struck the Sordide Sentimental camp and laid the label low, when that very precious single did eventually arrive Yves still felt obliged to apologise for its delay.
Like a lot of folk I have a habit of changing my profile photo(s) on Facebook every so often. Usually out of boredom and with no great connection to the moment or day, I currently rotate between three, I think. Recently, it just happened to be the turn of the Dead Souls’ label side of the Sordide Sentimental 7″ to hold court there. I’d forgotten that switching these things can create new Fb dialogue traffic (it’s the way they like it), so I then lost a couple of hours in chat, one strain of which centred on the debate had at various times down the years in the JD/NO online community over pitchshifting/varispeed/autotune and the likes and the possibility that the released versions of a handful of Joy Division tracks (including Dead Souls) hadn’t been quite, errr… ‘right’. A couple of the most knowledgeable and respected heads in the conversation came up with suggestions as to why but I thought I’d ask a man who would have a near definitive answer.
So, I emailed Steve Morris… and next morning, back came his reply:
‘Dead Souls re-pitching is a curious one. I appreciate that while it’s great that people will take the time to correct our mistakes, saves us a job I suppose, with Dead Souls I’m not certain there was one. A mistake that is.
It’s a long time ago now and memories on some things are not what they were but….Varispeed was occasionally used by us and others to increase (and very rarely decrease) the tempo of a song. To fix the errors of a flagging or over enthusiastic drummer perhaps. The side effect being that the tuning of the whole track alters slightly in the process. These days time stretching sorts this without the pitch anomalies. Hooray!!
What I guess would have happened is that Martin would have either Varisped the multi when mixing OR more likely done the mix then made a varisped production master.
Either way Dead Souls and Atmosphere (and Ice Age done at the same session) were possibly the two (or three) production jobs that we were happiest with. I can’t recall anyone moaning about how crap they sounded at the time and they were certainly done quickly for Martin.
I think we quite liked the varisped version. Who’s idea was it then? Good question. I would suspect that it was 50/50 for if it had been a totally Hannett idea there would have been objections which would have surfaced long before now?‘
Above and below: My original copy – #000309 – signed on the cover, top left (in the ‘scrawny’ pen of the day, a biro!) by Barney, Hooky and Steve, backstage at New Order’s Bedford Boys Club gig, March 21, 1981 – a gig I promoted, as some here will know.
I went to dig out the above, to retake a photo and would you believe, I can’t find it! 😱😱😱😱😱 ‘Don’t panic, Mr Mainwearing!” More annoyance than panic, it’s here somewhere.
Show 82 will be with you on August 2.
Dec x
4 thoughts on “Episode 81 – 5.7.20”
Sooooooo
This is your best one yet (though I probably think that every time)
Old and new , fantastic
Trout xxx
Well, that should ‘keep me on my toes’!
Hi Dec,
Good to hear the inside info on Dead Souls , alwAys sounds great whenever I hear it however it was produced …. These two tracks are probably my most favourite ….. The first time I heard Atmosphere on the John Peel show ….sent shivers down my spine ..it still gives me a tingle even now… Hope you find your copy …
Still looking for one myself but it’s a bit pricey These Days….AHH
Ade
Hi Adrian. Hooky’s flippant comment about giving away their two best tracks and then the label only presses 1578 always makes me smile. It’s certainly top of the ‘7″s with two blinding sides’ list for me and I know my copy is definitely here somewhere… so safe even I can’t find it. Dec