This playlist is 85% vinyl friendly. Impressive.

The BRAUN PC3 SV may have been a brick of a 1950s turntable but it’s yours from Holland for just on €500 plus postage and the extra charges that seem applicable on buying just about anything, old or new, from anywhere these days. 🙂

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Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here. 🙂

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Lyric of Playlist 132

For their ‘lyrics for the city’, it’s a tie: EBTG and Zero 7.

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As you might have guessed from the start of 131 previous 41 Rooms’ shows we’re always in New Order territory here. So… a shameless plug!

With the 2012 fully published edition’s very limited release out of print for well over a decade, From Heaven to Heaven, New Order Live, The Early Years (1981-1984) at Close Quarters… is being republished on November 8, courtesy of Damaged Goods Books – and with a big nod here to DG’s Ian Damaged. It’s been a journey.

As before, the book is landscape-style but this time it’s housed in a portrait set slipcase… easier for that shelving thing. Also included is a neatly concealed, free 7” single – a heavy edit of a late 1983 interview (more a chat) I had with Barney (Bernard Sumner). There’s only so much you can get on those two sides, even at (don’t forget) 33rpm.

Available now to pre order in the UK through the Damaged Goods site, in the US via MVD, in Germany via HHV or Finest Vinyl or indeed any bookstore: ISBN – 978-1-9162327–3-0.

Also…

Out of the blue, Rough Trade got wind early in the process and offered me a ‘chat and signing’ event evening, so Monday, Nov 11 I’m on stage doing just that, an ‘In Conversation with’ thing at RT’s flagship store, Rough Trade East in London’s Brick Lane… and I’ve grouped together a collective of peeps well versed with that early period of New Order.

MC/Chair: Dave Simpson (Guardian music critic, author, New Order’s Power, Corruption and Lies Definitive Edition Boxset writer), in conversation with

Dec Hickey (From Heaven to Heaven… author, New Order Definitive Edition boxsets contributor)

Jon Marsh (The Beloved)

Jon Wozencroft (Touch label founder {Feature Mist inc Video 5-8-6}, Joy Division’s Heart and Soul boxset (co-curator and photography).

Tickets for the In Conversation (with or without book purchase) are available here, a Facebook Events page is here and all the book pre-order/In Conversation info is grouped here.

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00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

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00.41

NEW ORDER – Let’s Go (Original vocal out-take/demo) – Unreleased – 1985

According to the ultra-reliable neworderonline.com this track was played nineteen times live (between Feb ’85 and August ’87) but whether in its instrumental form or a couple of vocal versions (with different lyrics) it always eluded me, and in the world of ‘drilling down’, the song has had a chequered history.’

And though it’s not Let’s Go-related, here’s an ad from the ‘video arm’ of Factory Records in the same early ’85 time period.

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04.31

ECHO and THE BUNNYMEN – A Promise – 7″ – Korova – 1981

If it wasn’t for New Order I’d have definitely caught the Bunnymen live in the early ’80s a lot more than I did. Was this the only single off their Heaven Up Here album? If so, in the scheme of looking for a high charting single to help shift an album, a slightly brave move. It only reached No. 49 but as we all know, chart positions are no indication of class. 🙂

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08.01

NIHILISTS – Back Seat Drops – 1 track CD single/download only – Classic Album Club Records – 2024

Ex-Puressence frontman, James Mudriczki and James Patterson haven’t been rushing things, seeing as this is only the third track to have been released (crept out?) in… eight years!

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12.10

CABARET VOLTAIRE – Sly Doubt – Red Mecca, LP – Rough Trade – 1981

I reckon I might have only given this a spin or two at our club, Winkles back in that day but given CV’s CV (boom boom!), even by then a few of their singles would have been getting more of a look in.

Richard Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), Bernard (New Order) and Richard’s girlfriend, Lynne: In the bar, pre New Order’s gig at Sheffield Uni, Sept 23, ’81. There on New Order time, Barney introduced me to Richard and I’d subsequently spend a fair amount of time convincing the latter that CV should play Bedford. It not only eventually happened, in July ’83, but such was the experience they came back the next year also. 🙂 RIP Richard.

Photo credit/copyright: Dec Hickey

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17.01

LONELADY – Threats * – Former Things, LP – Warp – 2021

Julie Lonelady getting dark funky, the way maybe Prince might have done on a wild slightly ‘off piste’ night in Paisley Park. Go! girl. A bit of a Cabs/Wrangler influence here and may she never loose that edge.

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22.30

SECTION 25 – Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix) – 12″ – Factory – 1983

Somehow (and mistakenly) all versions of this song missed the cut for the still massive ‘playlist’ I had as a starting point for 41 Rooms back in 2016. So, roughly seven years later than it might have appeared in a 41R show, here we go… with the Megamix extended ‘B’ side. Produced by Bernard Sumner with the wealth of New Order’s early ’80s electronic leanings to his and their name, this was and still is MASSIVE! 🙂

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29.39

JACANA PEOPLE (feat TEMM) – Sienna – Download only – ? – 2024

Deep and verrrrrry classy house music.

Bandcamp describe the ‘Electronic music duo from Buckinghamshire, UK’ as being ‘caught halfway between city noise and rural British landscapes’ and who ‘meld bittersweet electronica with sprawling organic textures.’ They may not give away their names freely but have been willing to give an insight or two.

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32.52

JUK JUK – Winter Turns Spring – 12″ – Text Records – 2011

The intro sounds like an outro and at times the changes are very subtle… from one Caleb Waterman. Note to self… reminiscent of early 41 Rooms’ playlist visuals, I must do more of these. Always needing to see the light…

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38.07

PAUL HARDCASTLE – Can’t Stop Now (MK Can’t Stop The Mix) errrr… mix – 12″ – JVC – 1994

The original track has a Loose Ends Hangin’ On A String feel but to my mind and ears Marc ‘MK’ Kinchen’s sits the ‘feeling’ of the vocals in a far more suitable track – to the point where, if I’d heard the two ‘unannounced’ and for the first time, I’d seriously wonder which is the original and which the remix. That’s happened once before (at least) on 41 Rooms but I’m never going to remember what it was.

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44.44

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL – Five Fathoms – promo only 12″ – Virgin – 1999

Ben Watt’s love of and move to a house and beats feel served the EBTG household well but then having Tracey Thorne as both his writing and relationship partner (in the house, literally) makes things a shade easier. Not for the first time this episode – class house music.

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49.59

WAS (NOT WAS) – Wheel Me Out – 12″ – Antilles – 1980

The Was brothers debut single and not for the only time would they sound like they’re having a ball in the studio – where ideas were maybe chucked in on the fly… and they just kept on smiling.

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55.00

ELECTRIC WIRE HUSTLE – Waters – EP 002, 12″ EP – Wonderful Noise Production – 2010

The lead track on their self-titled generally available 2009 debut album but given Discogs description (‘Electronic, Hip-Hop, Funk/Soul, Neo Soul‘) specific to the above EP, it is a Japanese only release, and just checking, main man, Mara TK has now featured on average every thirteen or so 41 Rooms’ shows. It’ll be a sad day if that doesn’t keep on keeping on.

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01.00.39

SUGAR PIE DeSANTO – My Illusions – 7″ b-side – Soul Clock – 1970

I’ve said it before – even though I have ‘northern soul’ friends I’ve known for as long as there’s been such a ‘scene’ I reckon the whole northern, rare etc soul world has more yet-to-be-discovered-by-me hidden gems than any other, and I’ll name-check 103.2 Dublin City FM’s Soulseeker show – hosted by my life long mate, Danny Duggan and Martin Goggin – as having landed this one (and a good few others) on me… and I can’t believe the single sells these days on the basis of the A-side. It’s got to be for My Illusions.

What were the chances? I always kick off creating a new 41 Rooms playlist by using the previous one as a starting template and track 13 on last month’s was a 7″ b-side of a 1970 7″ on a label called Soulhawk… and I’ve just replaced it with a 7″ b-side of a 1970 7″ on a label called Soul… Clock! All part of the service. You’re welcome.

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01.03.21

BIG BLOOD – Makes Me Wonder – First Aid Kit, LP – Feeding Tube Records – 2023

‘(Caleb) Mulkerin’s descriptions of different songs on the record run like faint recalled dreams . . . Many songs touch on the fear and horrors outside a safe home space, fitting for a record made during COVID. They sing about their feelings in the moment, so lyrics are often topical. ‘Makes Me Wonder’ is about Ma’kihia Bryant, a 16 year-old black girl shot by police‘. (extract) Ben Goldberg, forcedexposure.com

And though it narrows things down a bit, if you’re seeing this on Day 1 and in Grenaa, Denmark and are free tonight, you can find Big Blood at Svartloga as part of their (first ever?) European tour!

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01.10.37

IT’S… FREAKIN’… STYX! – Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) – A&M – 1978

But at least you’re not getting the pompous, overblown intro… or (only noticed late on!) much of the doodling keys bridge. Jeeeez, it’s a bloody single, lads! Get a grip! The punk wars were fought for far less than this! Mid 1970s US soft rock… if there’s none of the aforementioned pomp involved, it may not be the last you catch here. I’ll just have to see how relenting I’m feeling at the time.

If I’m honest, I also had Styx’s Blue Collar Man 7″ back in its day but listening to that tune now, it reeeeeally would be a step too far to make it to 41 Rooms.

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01.13.07

JETHRO TULL – Bungle In The Jungle – 7″ – Chrysalis – 1974

Only really a hit single in the US and Canada – and definitely not in the UK, where my purchase was of no use re chart aspirations – Bungle was intended for an unfinished and never later released album, one intended to focus on “exploring people, the human condition, through analogies with the animal kingdom.” Yep, not a theme that would have worried the UK singles charts back in 1974, or indeed too often any other time.

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01.16.25

MICHEL POLNAREFF – Âme Caline (Soul Coaxing) – 7″ – Palette – 1967

Previously playlisted on 41 Rooms, Raymond Lefevre’s instrumental of this tune was at the time, courtesy of BBC radio, the most heard version in the Hickey family household, but I don’t feel French singer/songwriter, Polnareff’s very own, soaring French-language vocal Âme Caline (Cuddly Soul) even got a look in… the ‘soaring French-language vocal’ bit maybe being the reason.

Unknown to me until I read his ‘heck of a life’ Wiki biog, Polnareff has made an appearance on 41 Rooms before… sort of. His track Voyages was sampled by The Shortwave Set for their single, Is It Any Wonder.

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01.19.17

RED GUITARS – Be With Me – 7″ – One Way Records – 1985

‘This song is for Jenny‘ sang vocalist, Rob Holmes, so I hope she got given a copy of this indie-aspiring-to-pop(ular) 7″. I bought mine.

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01.23.01

ISOUL8 & MARK De CLIVE-LOWE – Stop Bajon – 12″ b-side – Archive – 2010

A bit Afro… a bit ‘tribal’… a bit jazz… and then again. The work of Enrico ‘ISoul8’ Crivellaro and New Zealand-Japanese multi skilled Clive-Lowe. If the piecing together of the show had run over the two hour mark and I’d only noticed very late on, this might have gotten the 41 Rooms chop… and the jazzy keys would have certainly been in the firing line.

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01.28.13

LONELADY – Flee! – Hinterland, LP – Warp – 2015

She’s back. Very rare that the same artist returns within a 41 Rooms’ show but Julie Campbell’s ‘alright!’ so, she just has! And with a track that reminds me of something I can’t quite put a finger on.

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01.32.34

NICO – You Forgot To Answer (live) – Unknown

Might have been the Oxford Road Show. Either way, a bit mesmerising, as Nico’s voice and harmonium combination tended to be.

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01.35.21

THE BLUE NILE – Seven A.M. – Hats, LP – Linn Records – 1989

Well, I thought I’d finished with mistakenly playing a track twice on 41 Rooms but I gonna done it again! 🙁 The ‘Podcast Used’ folder had the track down previously as 7 A.M, so you can how. Must do better…

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01.39.51

ZERO 7 – Home – 12″ – Ultimate Dilemma – 2004

Always reminds me of Z7 guest vocalist-at-the-time, Tina Dico’s gobsmackin’ performance from the band’s appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Live show.

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01.43.59

SOLAR BEARS – Primary Colours At The Back Of My Mind – She Was Coloured In, 2LP – Planet Mu – 2010

Depending on how you gauge these things, possibly the seventh ‘electronics and beats’ duo on show 132. Here it’s a Dublin duo, with some incidental-type film music, I’d suggest.

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01.46.47

DAVID SYLVIAN – Ride – Everything And Nothing, 3LP compilation – Virgin – 2000

Such is the quality of 41 Rooms mainstay, Sylvian he managed to have this gem sitting idle for years. Ride actually sounds a 41 Rooms show ender and if I hadn’t been running very late in piecing this one together, with a bit of rejigging it maybe would have sat right there. Incidentally, I mention the 3CD format on the show but I subsequently found out the compilation is available as a vinyl release from the US.

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01.54.09

D*NOTE – Waiting Hopefully (4 Hero Vocal Mix) – 12″ – VC Recordings/Dorado – 1997

Just a hint of the mass of vinyl that could be issued just to promote an official release. 🙂

‘Promoed initially with Deep Dish’s mixes as a triple pack then followed by a double pack of the aforementioned’s best mixes as well as ones from Lil Louis and Faze Action, plus a 4 Hero 10inch… ‘, **** James Hyman, Record Mirror (Music Week), 7.6.97

4 Hero in brutal beats mode on the remix, not dissimilar to their earlier days masquerading as ‘Tom & Jerry’.

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Show 133 due Nov 3.

Dec x