Egg – "BBC Sessions And More (1968-1972)"

Eggs are an essential part of the modern Diet, and so are Prog Royalty Egg,served gloomy side up ,raw ,for your full English Breakfast.....No Black Pudding here however, as this stuff is as White as you can get.

The following statement of fact will make yer average Q-Anon cowboy twat vomit up his early morning Grits,but ,and once again, thank fuck for the BBC and the much maligned "Deep state" (who of course own the Beeb....not).Y'know WOT...they,yes 'They' can have it (da world).Which do you prefer? Living under the yoke of some fantastic secret world government running everything, or Egg?....I know which one i'd prefer....pssst,it begins with an 'E'.

 Despite having wiped a few medium sized warehouses of classic TV shows and Radio Sessions from a famously myopic period in popular culture before 68',they came good and preserved most of what was then becoming clear as a Golden age, even a  new Renaissance of the Arts.

Egg were one of those bands that one had heard of yet never bought their records. Obviously very talented musicians,they could play in any dodgy time signature one could care to mention....13/12 anyone?

Of course, this kinda talk is a real turn off for the ladies,or anyone non-binary,which seems to be everyone these days,so there's no great prospect of Egg making a comeback.Not that they'd want to,as the prospect of endless touring playing for static spotty longhairs,earning fuck all money, and never getting laid is a great reason for Punk Rock. However, as has now been well documented, most of the first wave of UK Punx were all into Egg,and in fact anything Prog as it turned out. The second wave were somewhat different,and stupider,so we get Sham 69, UK Subs and The Exploited.

EGG - extolling the benefits of a woolly sweater,and putting a brave face on not getting any (Adult) lady action  

You may have noticed the droning voice of a late Paedo-DJ introducing "Long Piece part 3" ,no not Jimmy Savile,the other one that got away with it by dying,whom is somewhat idolised by sad trainspotters comme moi,everywhere.He manages not to mention School Girls on this appearance,in reverence to Egg;but any proof you want can be found in his Biography,and on the cover of the Ruts "The Crack" LP; but like Glitter,one must separate the wheat from the chaff,and the man from the music. I hear the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury has now been re-named....don't wanna upset anyone who's middle-class now would we?

The last three tracks are in fact the pre and post Egg band Uriel/Arzachel, with Canterbury chum, Steve Hillage.A project put on Ice while Hillage was on University duty.The first 11 tracks are actually EGG,and markedly superior, no offence to Steven intended.

Would love to imagine a collaboration between Egg and Egg,Eggs,or even those Lovely Eggs? There being a small 50 year musical gap between the suggested incumbents. Noticing the terrible attempts at humour,on tracks 4 and 9,these more 'modern' type bands could certainly help out in that department. That's another thing the ladies,binary ones, or non-Binary ones,require in a sexual partner which,in lonely hearts app speak,a GSOH!

This acronym does however get trumped by a.... Ferrari of course.Sorry to be cynical (again!) but its a set in stone fact.

Notes for the very sad:

Tracks 1-3 recorded for BBC 'Sound Of The Seventies' on 22nd February 1972.
Track 4 recorded for BBC 'Sound Of The Seventies' on 13th March 1972.
Tracks 5 & 7 recorded live for BBC 'In Concert' on 4th February 1971.
Tracks 9-10 recorded for BBC 'Top Gear' on 5th September 1969.
Track 11 recorded live at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London, 22nd February 1971.
Tracks 12-14 recorded at Studio 19, London in November 1968 as Uriel(otherwise known as Arzachel when Steve Hillage was around).

Tracklist:

1 Germ Patrol 5:30
2 Enneagram 8:45
3 Wring Out The Ground (Loosely Now) 7:57
4 There's No Business Like Show Business 3:12
5 A Visit To Newport Hospital 7:52

6 An Announcement by John Peel 0:31
7 Long Piece No. 3 (Parts 2, 3, 4) 16:38
8 While Growing My Hair 3:43
9 Seven Is A Jolly Good Time 3:05
10 McGillicuddle The Pusillanimous 4:56
11 Saturn 6:22
12 Swooping Bill 3:25
13 Ego Man 4:08
14 The Salesman Song 2:57

DOWNLOAD the egg that came before the chicken HERE!

Pink Fairies ‎– "Never Neverland" (Polydor ‎– 2383 045) 1971 (Re-Post+)

Pop Groups what played yer proper Rock'n'Roll were a rarity in the early seventies, but here's one of 'em, Der Pink Fairies.

I belatedly realised that i posted this album before,and you can read wot I wrote below in Italics. Since I wrote this crap, my attitude has since developed even more of a stink,so i will add extra cynical blurbage to the brief Mojo magazine style yawn-dom my nom de plume tapped out back in October 2016!?....and I quote:

"They contributed the proto-punk anthem "Do It" to world culture, a virtual punk manifesto expressed as a three minute symphony.
The rest of their canon never really matches the heights of "Do it",except maybe "City Kids" from the "Kings Of Oblivion" album gets closer than the rest; but they contributed a nascent punk attitude (fucking hate that word -JZ), and the roots of some of the more rock orientated Pub Rock."

Indeed "Do It" could be misconstrued as a clarion call to arms for the Punk Rock generation several years hence forth,and indeed it was.Many future punky types were regular Fairies fans,including self-proclaimed inventor of said silly genre and Prat, Johnny Be Rotten.

It could also be the anthem for this blog,as it was initially set up to focus on the classic DIY-pop era of 1979-83 cassette culture,but has since evolved into a trainspotters guide to rock'n'pop'n'all thing roll ephemera,mainly to avoid the bordeom of advancing age.A friend of mine was found Dead in his house the other week,computers still whirring,where he had lain for five days before being discovered,dead and whiffy. I fear this may be my fate one day.

I'm getting round to my obituary blog post, that,hopefully, before the heart attack kicks fully in, I can post with the flick of a finger before i drop to the floor awaiting discovery.The neighbours may notice something's wrong after approx a week or so.Poor old Joe was noticed missing online,believe it or not.Working from home! So the Fire Brigade got a call from Germany!?And kicked their way in.....if only they'd asked, we have a spare key,and the alarm code! I don't have the luxuries of worried employers (an oxymoron if ever there was one). Its normal for me to disappear for 7 days,so the girlfriend won't worry.This is the price one pays for being an anti-social arsehole....left as rat food until someone can be bothered.

Of course,the human tradition is for any good idea....DIY not death.... to have humble beginnings, then be overran with throngs of bandwagon jumping drones,like a dog with a new toy who rips the thing that gives them joy to pieces.DIY is now a genre, with all kinds of pointless groups filling up the empty slots at summer festivals with their not very Do it yourself...DIY? dogma....as dictated by the unfortunate youths who have the misfortune of missing everything thats ever happened in 20th century music and art.Stick to your video games and trainer kids,and leave the old stuff purely for nostalgic masturbation....like this blog.

Back in the day nobody had a clue that they could do all this shit  themselves. Now that the bunny is longtime out of the hat, every fucker does it.Diluting the idea so far that one begins to crave the days when Record labels ruled the earth and Massive Rock Group behemoths made us all feel like insects to be crushed under their chartered super-jumbo's complete with faux-Victorian interiors....I believe Led Zeppelin had something similar,including a real 19th century functioning fireplace on their jumbo jet:

Led Zep reliving their working class roots at 30,000 feet

This was,thankfully, unattainable for that cassette poet from Barrow-in-Furness,who will send you back his spoken word if you sent him a blank C-90 and a self-addressed envelope.It was just a dream for that shite bedroom band with upturned bins for drums to record in a 120 track digital studio, and get their awful wares displayed on a commercial space covering the entire planet and beyond.Everyone can be some form of Led Zeppelin nowadays.You can even fly to your internet arranged gigs on affordable low budget airlines......however, you are only allowed to carry one victorian fireplace as hand luggage.

Now, the clarion call is no-longer "DO IT!" for the clued up dozens, it's "DON'T DO IT!"....pleeeeze! I don't ever wanna hear your perfectly produced Nu-Folk Hip Hop collaboration with that guy in Mongolia, or you and your grannies Harsh Noise box set tribute to Jeffrey Dahmer.It's shit,you missed the bus,and the Bus has crashed because of the human plague.The same reason we will never live in peace.

Keep it to yourself if you wanna do it yourself, we killed it.

Anyway, i've done this myself....sorry, and re-written/updated the lyrics to the Pink Fairies classic "Do It"...it goes as follows as follows:

"Do it 2022" Lyrics:

Don't think about it
All you've got to do is, don't
Well don't talk about it
Don't, do it

Don't lie about it
Just Don't do it
Don't Write about it honey
Then we'll just,not do it

Yeah,don't do do do do do do do do do do it
Don't Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it
DON'T DO IT

Don't sing about it...Pleese,Don't Do it!

If you gonna do it, Don't
Don't write about it man
Don'T do it

Rock and roll
And the message is,its already been DONE a million times over
But You knew it? Didn't you?
You blew it,DON'T do it,don't do it, don't do it,

Don't do it (x12) NO!

(Words by J.Zchivago....go on sue me.)

PS: I may record this if i can be arsed to learn the tabs.

Tracklist:

Original Album:

1 Do It 4:15
2 Heavenly Man 3:41
3 Say You Love Me 3:48
4 War Girl 4:34
5 Never Never Land 6:55
6 Track One, Side Two 4:41
7 Thor 0:58
8 Teenage Rebel 5:20
9 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout 10:51
10 The Dream Is Just Beginning 1:18

Bonus Tracks:

11 The Snake 3:58
12 Do It (Single Edit) 3:04
13 War Girl (Alternate Extended Mix - Previously Unreleased) 4:34
14 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout (First Version - Previously Unreleased) 12:24

DOWNLOAD don't think about it just do it HERE!

Crushed Butler – "Uncrushed (1969-1971)" (Radio Heartbeat – RHB-110) 2015

Even before the members of the Ramones or Dead Boys were born,'We invented Punk' candidates ,Crushed Butler, were having their photo taken amongst scenes of devastating Urban decay ,and bombsites left over from the Blitz. 

Including Brit rock's most rockinest under 25 equivalent of Iggy poop, Jesse Hector, Crushed Butler were making balls to the wall basic proto-punk when three quarters of the UK Subs were still in nappies.Recorded in glorious Mono,these demo's obviously never saw the light of day until the search for the Holy Grail of embryonic Punk began in the 21st century.

Of course, anyone old enough to have gone to see Bovva Rock leg-ends Slade, Mott The Hoople,or even the punk metal myth made flesh  Atomic Rooster, will remember that brutal trio who opened the evening on many such occasions in 1971. Equally, anyone who remember those sweaty weeknight pub rock extravaganza's at the Hope and Anchor in 1974, or the Punk Rock nights at the same venues in 1976, will have noticed that the two blokes in Crushed Butler with the funny haircuts and lambchop sideburns were those geezers in historic Pub /Punk crossover trio The Hammersmith Gorillas; whose top tune "It's My Life" was first unleashed by the Crushed Butlers in 1969....included here.

Crushed Butler pictured as children during the Blitz, 1941.

They were around slightly before Third World War,and The Pink Fairies , and other worthy 'we invented (UK) Punk' candidates; but after the Deviants and Edgar Broughton, although musically,and visually, they tick more boxes probably,than a few of their bluesy rivals.....retrospectively of course;back then they would have been called Hard Rock,or what we sad 21st century bastards have labelled 'Bovva Rock' ,exclusive to the Uk,conjuring up images of the boots and braces football following Bovva Boys of the early 70's. Something that carried over into Punk Rock exemplified by those Mick Ronson devotees of Pistols in Manchester support act fame...Slaughter and the Dogs, who even wore football scarves at gigs!?

Football fans still sing Gary Glitter's anthemic bovva boy stomps at matches to this day....who cares of he's a paedo,he was one of the boys back in '72! The golden era of the boot boy and footy fandom;before they made us sit down and put us in cages....sometimes electrified (Chelsea did that!)

If ever anyone wanted to sing a Gary Glitter song in a dense electrified atmosphere of pure malevolence and Hatred, other than standing naked in a queue for the showers in a Nazi extermination camp.Then going to a football match in the 70,s and 80's was the place for you.There was lots of space for pure hatred to fester on the terraces,as no-one 'normal' ever went.

This is what the UK media thought going to a Punk gig was like in 1977......not far off actually.

It's complicated innit?

PS....was it a pub myth that at a certain football match in the blue side of Manchester,around 1980,some clever chap started a chant, directed at travelling supporters,which went something along the lines of..."You're going 'ome in a Crispy Ambulance"?

Or was that a Half-man Half Biscuit song?

Probably post-fact Mandela syndrome stuff, but fun all the same.

Tracklist:

1. It's My Life

2. Factory Grime
3. My Son´s Alive
4. High School Dropout
5. Love Is All Around Me
6. Love Fighter
7. High School Dropout Ver. 2

DOWNLOAD the crushing reality of who invented punk rock HERE!

Third World War – "Third World War" (Fly Records – FLY 4) 1971

The inventors of Punk Rock,"The Joey Ramones" and their Dad,pictured circa 1875

Note from your author:

If you're bored shitless with the endless and on-going debate about who invented punk and who was or wasn't punk before punk before Punk, i recommend that you scroll down to the next notation point below to avoid more nit-picking on this very daft subject.

Wot is Proto-Punk...Discuss?

Hmmm, I must be bored?

So, we've established that the blame for The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal lays heavily on the doorstep of the Sex Pistols for making it fashionable again under a different name. So this gives me the chance to revisit that awfully tiresome subject of where did Punk start and who invented it.,which,if you're a proud American, all happened in a couple of clubs of rocking bohemians,self-proclaimed poets,junkies,and street punks in New York City around 1975 (waiting for someone to comment,1974 actually!). This is where The Ramones (the ones with the Paul McCartney inspired name!?)  ,basically played sped up metal with bubblegum lyrics atop, and,like their Glam Pop heroes,the Bay City Rollers, dressed strictly on a unalterable theme.

They had long Hair,and didn't play solo's because they weren't good enough to play them,as much as they would have loved  to. However their amped up Bubblegum Metal excited the small crowd at CBGB's and word crossed the ocean via professional trend spotter Malcolm Maclaren,then manager of New York's version of The Sweet, The New York Dolls, and said very little about this eccentric band of  long hairs...after all the UK already had Motorhead,and a plethora of long haired rockers. The Curly haired Svengali decided that he could also make a group of Losers into an art project and help promote his new shop of rubber gear.So a bunch of Kids ,some sporting hair like David Bowie,and DIY fashion,who liked Hawkwind,Roxy Music, The Who and the Small faces allegedly stole some instruments and tried to play some Mod Metal,which also seemed to excite a small audience in a small club for some obscure reason.....usually referred to as 'Boredom'.They moaned about having No Future,which I always assumed meant a steady job and a TV. If they had these things then this new wave of rockers would therefore had never happened?

Personally, my own unhappiness and anger came from far more desperate internal sources than having a few quid in the back bin. It always rankled me hearing the Clash moan about Career Opportunities,and Sham 69 whining about having 'Fuck All'.....it was the prospect of having that unattainable future as a debt slave that made this new rock music,in inverted comma's, seem so attractive. It was after-all just another re-birth of Rock'n'Roll with better clothes....at least from the British perspective. The american kids probably had career opportunities ,and were slightly more sophisticated in their existential plight,and left the Politics out of it. Therefore politics became prominent at the London end of all things Punk Rock.....a name lifted from the american garageland of the sixties(They had Cars?) by British journalists and clumsily applied to this new wave in the British Isles. Ironically, the American Sixties Punks were stylistically trapped in a fuzzier British Invasion rat-trap. Now the Brits were enviously accused of stealing american music ...again.....when no-one ever said that Rock'n'Roll was anything other than deeply American, with less acknowledged roots in Africa,.....Did you know that Elvis was ginger?He dyed  that black greasy mop Black kids.So there's some Scottish roots in this two piece jigsaw puzzle. This Pelvis person also had a backing band of middle-aged blokes....very uncool. Jerry Lee Lewis was ginger and never tried to  hide it, and Chuck Berry was still an influence in 1977,with his riffs resurrected by a bunch of pasty faced London teenagers.They cheered in the Vortex when it was announced that Elvis had died)

In the meantime,little Richard Hell was preening his naturally coloured Space-oddity spikey top, and Patti Smith was forcing Hippie Poetry down the necks of her New York captive audience saying look at us, not them; London had been taking it all back to basics since 1971 with the sweat and dirt of the thriving Pub Rock phenomena. This along with Glam were the main influences that informed the bored youth of Angleterre before the owner of 'Sex' had even alighted the plane at JFK airport. Of course that Legs O'Neil bloke will always turn up whenever the name 'Punk' is mentioned, because he thinks he invented Punk,and those limey plagiarists owe him some Dollah!.....mainly because he published a contemporary culture magazine and called it 'Punk',even then not an exclusive word,featuring the local pop culture,which inevitably included the Ramones and Dickie Hell. Glam legend Lou Reed was on issue number one, he points out...meaning precisely what exactly?

Once the Sex Pistols had been on the Telly in the UK and used sweary words,that was IT.'IT' was massive, defined and called Punk Rock.From that moment on, I put it to you, that anything from before that year zero moment onwards doesn't fall into the Punk bracket, and is therefore NOT PUNK as we know it.

It's proto-Punk at best, but more likely, something else.

You're always gonna get some smart arse who has found the new inventors of Punk,like the latest trendy candidate, Death,who were in the wrong time and the wrong place,and the wrong look (Black). What about Mozart, some fucker will always say,who struggles with the concept that something cannot be something from another established epoch. World War One didn't happen during World War Two,and the New York Bohemian Rock scene didn't happen during Punk...simples.What's not to understand? Whereas,the Californian 'Punk scene' did happen within the bracket,and therefore qualifies,as does Washington DC.

The Kinks playing "You Really Got me", isn't Punk, its sixties rock'n'roll, The Troggs, same thing, The Who etc,all Brtish eqivalents for the sruff these US Punk chumps come up with to find something which predates accepted rock'n'roll fact. The New York Dolls, a Glammed up Mick and Keef tribute band; The Stooges, sixties punk version of Glam, Dead Boys...bandwagon jumpers from US Proto-Punk capital Cleveland......and of course, The M......C.......5..groan...the British equivalent being....that's right, Third World War ,who didn't happen during WW2 either.Which brings us to the first part of an impending thread on British Proto-Punk, that doesn't need to mention the MC5,because all this Helter-Skelter mirroring stuff was happening in the UK at the same time,and never gets a knowing nod in it's direction.

Note 2:

It's ok you can open your eyes now, its gone.

This sounds like one of those man who walked into a Bar jokes,but....it may be true?

"Joe Strummer(yeah i know!) walked up to me(jim Avery) of Third World War at the bar and said,
“Weren't you in Third World War?”
I (Jim) said “Yes”, and he shook my hand.
“You guys were doing it when everything else was dead...”

So Says Jim Avery,bass player for Third World War (2004)

Doing what exactly Woody Mellor (future Clash member)? Playing bad arsed bovver Rock while you were a Woody Guthrie clone folk musician with curly hair?

The stuff Third World war was playing in 1970 was what the music press would have labelled 'Blues Rock',and certainly would not have been called Punk Rock,like the MC5 and Stooges weren't called either of those epithets.Biker Rock was used for the MC5, and the Stooges were garage rock in 1969 and Glam in 1973.

Retrospectively,we lessening breed of 21st century rock librarian bores,tend to utilise our Dewey decimal system looking backwards,and apply categories that never existed at the time to all sorts of bizarre sub-species of the same thing.This never existed at the time.A case in point would be Post-Punk,which has been applied to all manner of stuff that,at the time, I would have just called 'Punk'. Its no longer 'Fuck You' its 'I'm Fucked',is the mantra attributed to things like Joy Division,where even the band members referred to themselves as a Punk group.

Basically, in the beginning, there was Rock'n'Roll, and on the 8th day someone invented Viking Funeral Doom Metal!

Third World War,without the Blues inflected vocals,by Terrance Stamp (Nooooo,not Michael Caines wing-man!), sounds like a sludge version of Crass,but from a time when even Penny Rimbaud was a young Beatles Fan.However,they had a guitar sound that would have happily graced any DIY Punk band from 1981,or even The Fall in 1980.

They had the Politics too.Fashionably 1969-style Communism in a Das Kapital by numbers kind of thing. Wouldn't have gone down well in the USA, but in post-hippy Britain this was ignored as normal.Expected even?

Apparently they have celebrity fans.....see if you can guess who they are.....yep,rather unpredictably,that charming married couple of professional punks Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye. They come as a pair and count one point only; plus serial 'punk' namedropper,one Steven Albini for a miserly 2 points.

These commie bovver rockers tick many boxes,but I think they got it right in the Melody Maker in 1971....Blues Rock.....tick!

I will,however) allow 'Punk before Punk' used as an adjective for future reference.Punk after Punk can be,logically, contracted to just 'Punk',as that's what Punk is,although it is also debatable as to whether Punk still exists,at least within the medium of music? Tah Tah!

Tracklist:

A1 Ascension Day 4:50
A2 M.I.5's Alive 8:07
A3 Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing 1:50
A4 Working Class Man 4:29
B1 Shepherds Bush Cowboy 4:35
B2 Stardom Road Part I 5:36
B3 Stardom Road Part II 3:43
B4 Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red 1:24
B5 Preaching Violence 5:03

DOWNLOAD third world war before world war three kicks off HERE!

Södra Bergens Balalaikor – "Södra Bergens Balalaikor" (MNW – MNW 19 P) 1971

Apart from austere joyless classical music, Dictators like their peasant classes to entertain themselves by doing traditional dances to horrific localized folk like this .Woe betide any smart alek liberal who whips out an electric organ or a new fangled digital accordian to sing songs in any foreign tongue,that doesn't exude love of country or praise the family unit. Out would be wheeled the portable guillotine so beloved of the Nazi's, for public execution parties.....complete with doomy classical and creepy Folk orchestra's in a jolly up as the offenders severed head is placed on the 'peoples' spike at the entrance of the city.

Although this scenario doesn't generally happen in peace lovin' Sweden...yet....this creepy,but menacingly funny balalaika band was a pinko non profit orchestra that boasted up to 30 balaikas and a choir in it's line-up,probably with it's own Swedish communist party lyicist. You may not be surprised to know that this started as a music school project,hence the deliberately emphasised 'bum' notes,which I guess indicates a pretension towards humor.

You may also be surprised to know that Södra Bergens Balalaikor was part of the Swedish 'Progg Movement' as discussed on the last post. This explains those grubby socialist jibes that your's truly aimed in the orchestra's general direction. That being the politics of choice for the 'Progg' movement...and why not? It worked for Amon Duul...forward slash...Baader-Meinhof's Red Army Faction....fun fun fun? Being cajoled into these movements,must be like being shut in a Japanese prison sweat box with an insurance salesman.

Don't It just make you wanna kick seven shades of shite out of the nearest self-righteous soap boxing aspiring political activist ? Leave us alone you cunts....please?

If Vladimir 'The impailer' Putin ever got anywhere near your home town you better start paying attention to your local folk volunteers and get yerself a Balalaika.....acoustic of course; as well as genning up on austere classical music.A guaranteed ticket away from having electrodes attached to your genitalia,before being waterboarded in a bath of human shit. 

This was the kind of stuff one could find in the 'Bargain Bin' section of the famed Ultima Thule shop of Leicester....which I'm sure I've mentioned before? It might have been cheap(it isn't now) but this stuff could empty a room almost as quickly as an Amon Duul I LP.

There are certainly shades of the Portsmouth Sinfonia going on here, and maybe even The 3 Mustaphas 3 from the 70's and 80's respectively. However i'm not sure how serious SBB or these other similar projects were,which is also a pointer towards sophisticated comedy,as it is with the aforementioned examples in this paragraph.They could be the Swedish Incredible String Band for all I know.

Having heard quite a few of the other Swedish 'Progg' groups,I can now warn you,in a polite way, that they aren't very good at all.So don't go thinking that there's an Italian Prog type gold mine of wonderful progressive rock just waiting like low hanging fruit fro yourselves to gorge on until you're sick.....dunno about you but I'm sick already.I'm also quite pleased to say that this has nothing to do with Rock In Opposition,except maybe 60's student politics, which is supposedly what the recent train of thought was supposed to be about.

Tracklist:

A1 Under Äppelträdet 3:10
A2 Zhaleika 2:17
A3 Dnjepr 2:30
A4 Kärleksvisa 2:30
A5 Månen Lyser 3:56
A6 Timon 3:11
B1 Poljanka 3:30
B2 Azamat 1:35
B3 Den Lille Gåskarlen 2:15
B4 Under Eken 1:33
B5 Vallåt Från Ryssland 2:00
B6 Gogov, Gogov 1:40
B7 Kamarinskaja 3:47

DOWNLOAD some volk musik HERE!

Moving Gelatine Plates – "Moving Gelatine Plates" (CBS – S 64399) 1971

CBS (Can Be Shit), not very DIY (Do It Yourself) I know, but however misguided the corporate interest,these evil organisations can sometimes do world culture a favour and provide for us monkeys something worthwhile.Yep, it's the Moving Gelatine Plates' debut album, which,despite an inferior cover to its successor is,probably,slightly, better? Yes dey waz a gallic Canterbury scene Soft Machine tribute band in essence,but if you close your eyes it could actually be our heroes reformed and back on Soft Machine's Third form?...well almost.

Inevitably,the corporate interest waned when the dumb bastards(CBS) realised they weren't gonna get a number one hit on the Billboard top 200, and sadly had to cease spinning the plates and let them crash to the floor.As was the destiny of 99.999994% of all pop groups (figures taken from the national office of Statistics).It's dog eat dog out there,but you might get laid for your troubles,which is basically all a young male human wants out of life anyway so who's complaining?Money and fame you will NOT get......especially in the present.

Without randy dick-led show-offs there would have been no new inventions,new discoveries,No Art,and forever relevant to this blog, FUCK ALL MUSIC!

As your author's labido is currently winding down,this blog's continuation is in the greasy hands of mother nature;although I have yet to get laid because of my wordy internet activities,at least not to my knowledge.I did wake up in a post alcohol stuper  a few times with a sore arsehole.....but the doctor assures me that was just hemorrhoids or a Freudian Adjective about myself?  

Shit! That means the only reason for making music theses days is "Art for Arts Sake" for Fucks Sake!....hey,wasn't that a song by 10cc?

Tracklist:

1 London Cab 8:30
2 X-25 2:00
3 Gelatine 8:10
4 Last Song 15:20
5 Memories 3:15
6 Destruction 2:47
7 Tout Autour De Toi 4:13
8 Fréquence Nocturne 4:22
9 Solaria 3:45

DOWNLOAD the very moving gelatine plates HERE!

Mahogany Brain – "With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger)" (Futura Records – RED 02) 1971

 

Mahogany Brain ARE,and this statement could be controversial, the Best band ever to come out of France. This I truly believe,and would arm wrestle,or play a winner takes all game of Casdon Soccer with anyone who disagrees.

I probably said the same about Helden and Magma,but this time I mean it maaaaan.

What's more is that I think they are genuinely French and not Belgian,as is usually the case.

Like a Red Krayola from french-rock hell,they deconstruct the 15 years pre-Mahogany era of the evolving Rock'n'Roll cliché and spit it back out in the eye of the discerning pop consumer.Slipping from the womb fully formed, and fully dee-formed enough to put 99% of the fuckers off music,..... forever!

If this fact doesn't even make you fantasize about leaving the room in faux-disgust and slamming the door in a pique of crypto-anger, then you're already dead,or,a bastard,or, a musician,or, all three.

Epic,Absurd,Pretentious,Unsane;i'm running out of adjectives here!

If your significant 'Other' doesn't hate this record's gutz within the first 5 minutes of your stylus making contact with these grooves,then i will send you a ten shilling postal order made payable to myself and me mam.All entries to be written on the back of a Casdon Soccer's wildly undulating pitch and sent to BBC Television Centre, Teddington Lock, NE3 from 4, Milton Keynes.

I'll Repeat that!.......alright,is it that obvious? I'm getting ready to write about The Moving Gelatin Plates,aka,The French "Caravan" innit? This could be my Waterloo,who knows?

Tracklist:

1.Bloody Hide And Seek In The Rain 0:30
2.Wrong Reincarnation 5:15
3.Hot Milk Elbow (Part I) 3:15
4.Sky-Fish 2:30
5.Unbottoned Eyes 2:30
6.Screaming Zenith 2:40
7.The Child With The Wind, The Snow, And The Yellow Top Waiting For The Magical Toy 4:47 
8.Universe (Naked Speed) 0:25
9.The Secret Body Of Wind 3:10
10.Hot Milk Elbow (Part II) 2:53
11.Head Of Night 2:50
12.Zevagho Chzechago 3:35

DOWNLOAD this rare wood as rare organ HERE!

Spriguns Of Tolgus – "Jack With A Feather" (Alida Star – ASC 7755) 1971

Another pale blue off the shelf standard jacket,and another Fairport Convention emulator,and every line-up of Fairport and Steeleye Span is represented,but all on one LP. 

Noticed that an original copy of this private pressing is up for sale on Discogs for a very reasonable four grand!?....does anyone actually pay these prices? How they can look at themselves in the mirror I'll never understand.Sorry African children you'll have to continue to die horribly of disease and hunger 'cus I just bought a Spriguns Of Tolgus original pressing for Four grand! Luckily for us mentally normal persons there exists Cd's that we can rip and distribute to the poor, Robin Hood style.

It's not bad musically, but when a disc is judged mainly for its rarity rather than quality,it can cloud certain person's vision. They did however get signed to a proper record label on the basis of this,and now enjoy a 'cult' following in Scandinavia,which is what we all dream of in our nascent adolescent pop stardom fantasies is it not?

The band photo's on the cover are rather amusing anyway,dressed up as knights, wizards and jesters.....which ,may I suggest, should be made compulsory for at least one day a month during the full moon?

On later records,they did get darker,and so should it be.

Listen carefully for Singer Mandy Morton's Bongo's.

Tracklist:

1.Lambton Worm
2.Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
3.Derby Ram
4.Jigs:Rakes Of Malo / St. Patrick's Day / Ten Penny Bit
5.Flodden Field
6.Troopers Nag

7.Curragh Of Kildare
8.Keys Of Canterbury
9.Twa Magicians
10.Seamus The Showman
11.Barren Banks Of Aden

DOWNLOAD and pay no less than zero quid HERE!

Fresh Maggots – "Fresh Maggots... Hatched" (Sunbeam Records – SBR2LP5002) 1971

 It wasn't the Punx who first sang about life on the Dole (unemployment Benefit) apparently?Among a lot of other traits that they shared with earlier times,like all those ridiculous 'Punk before Punk' groups that get discovered everyday,just to put that to bed,Punk Rock only existed when it had a name,which was basically all it was about musically,but there were some good clothes at least;unlike the Hippies. Two of which can be heard on this sunk without trace Psychedelic Folk monster from 1971,singing about The Dole...among other topics, including anti-war and anti-monarchy tunes.

This Nuneaton#(UK) based pair  obviously heard The Incredible String Band,and Donovan,and realised just a couple of acoustic guitars and a penny whistle could possibly get them on the Hippie Folk bandwagon,and maybe, able to sign off the Dole? This may have occurred, but by 1972 they were back on the Dole after failing to shift enough units to make a second album economically viable..... a familiar tale.

#The Home town of the great Larry Grayson if anyone's interested.So its very possible that the good Larry would have heard Fresh Maggots at some point while walking up and down Nuneaton high street.I can just imagine he,Slack Alice, Non-Stick Nell,Apricot Lil and Once a Week Nora, standing at the back of the hall while the Maggots were going off on one. Any late comers would have been swiftly advised to "Shut that Door!"......just don't tell Everard for christs sake!

Ooooh look at the muck in 'ere!

Tracklist:

A1 Dole Song 3:27
A2 Rosemary Hill 3:34
A3 Quickie 1:21
A4 Everyone's Gone To War 3:55
A5 And When She Laughs 2:49
A6 Spring 3:22
B1 Balloon Song 3:56
B2 Guzz Up 1:37
B3 Who's To Die? 3:55
B4 Elizabeth R 2:53
B5 Frustration 5:58
C1 Car Song 4:06
C2 What Would You Do? 2:47
D1 Frustration (Live) 5:54
D2 Rosemary Hill (Live) 3:49
D3 Quickie (Live) 1:29
D4 And When She Laughs (Live) 1:29
D5 Spring (Live) 3:06

DOWNLOAD the flys that hatched from the maggots HERE!

Martin Carthy – "Landfall" (Philips – 6308049) 1971

Archie Fisher was not the only MBE on the folk circuit incredibly. For sooth ,Martin Carthy MBE has been a reality for more than a decade.This means I have to choose a favourite Martin Carthy album,so, having a liking for grim tunes and psychsploitative sleeve art I've plumped for this...."Landfall". A word that usually means the moment when a hurricane  hits the shore and calms down a bit.

There's good songs about infanticide,loneliness,death,injustice, and mental illness,what more could you want?

Martin is also worth his MBE for never selling out,and  for his impeccable ethics...you know, those things the Punk Rockers conveniently forgot about once they got in the charts.....I know,'but he accepted an MBE' you say....in the world of Folk this is not the same act of betrayal as Mick Jagger accepting a knighthood, as the royal family was always an accepted part of the folk world especially in the lyrics.Without the murdering, thieving, war mongering scum that made up the royal families of the past, we would have only about half of the folk songs available for the good Martin to re-interpret for us!?

Tracklist:

A1 Here's Adieu To All Judges And Juries
A2 Brown Adam
A3 O'er The Hills
A4 Cruel Mother
A5 Cold Haily Windy Night
B1 His Name Is Andrew
B2 The Bold Poachers
B3 Dust To Dust
B4 The Broomfield Hill
B5 January Man

DOWNLOAD the calming moment of the hurricane HERE!

Anne Briggs – "The Complete Topic Recordings(1963 - 71)" (Bo'Weavil Recordings – weavil 10) 2006

A fine East Midlands lass,with flowing dark hair and an intense stare.....just like your scribe;-).Anne Briggs was only sixteen when she started performing her puritanical solo and unaccompanied Folk singing career at the Nottingham Goose Fair back in 1960. No interest in Johnny Kidd or Cliff and The Shadows for young Anne.When she sings its as if Rock'n'Roll had never happened.....Jazz either for that matter. Instruments???.. that's for sell-outs...the 'please like me' brigade.Or the rogue folkies who formed pop groups, 'The please please like me' brigade, like The Beatles and The Hollies,who were for all intents and purposes electrified Folk groups with a backbeat. Her first EP was out on legendary folk label 'Topic' during the height of Beatlemania in '64,as if from the times before electricity.She sang about the less happy aspects of love and life, unlike our luvable mop-tops.This was about how crap progress was,and the pitfalls of love.Kinda like a sixties version of Straight Edge Punk.

She shunned the spotlight,even refusing to record anything for a while,music was in the moment and shouldn't be repeated.She had no interest in the feminist movement because she WAS feminism.No need for bra burning,she did whatever she wanted without permission from men or women alike.Patronisingly labelled a 'Wild Child' for her attitude to life,especially because she was female,and ladies didn't do things like get drunk and sleep around did they?Er...yes they did.....still do apparently,but now they can play Football or Rugby.....that's progress????

Eventually,of course, the odd bazouki or guitar cropped up,and she even started writing her own songs;but by 1973 she gave up music to live in the scottish wilderness with her Forester hubby, and had a family.Hardly ever to been seen or heard again.One of the very few musicians never to really sell-out to the man,or men.

She was also the source for several of the traditional songs which were popified by The Pentangle and Fairport among others, including "Blackwaterside." Of which former dalliance Bert Jansch's instrumental accompaniment to this song was later copied ,read as 'Ripped Off' by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy 'I ran off with a fourteen year old and nobodies done anything about it' Page; who recorded it as "Black Mountain Side”(notice any similarities there?) and credited himself as the writer....Not the first time Jim was known to do that.....for example probably 'that song', currently in litigation, also? Never forgiven those hairy fuckers for not paying Sandy Denny for her work on Led Zep IV.Twats!

Sandy,influenced by all aspects 'Anne' since she was a 16 year old witnessing a woman on stage in the folk clubs of London,was a good friend,as well as a Fan of Briggs,but could no way match her purist approach to the Folk Lifestyle.As much as she would love to give up the quest for fame or her luxuries,she couldn't.So she wrote a song for Fotheringay about her barrier busting chum, "The Pond and The Stream.

Anne's pure unadorned voice is a beacon for honest simplicity,and intensity,the very opposite to the vocal acrobatics that the modern wave of pop singers torture our ears and minds with today.It was a back to basics approach that would inform the punk music of the future.After all, Punk music ,IS, Folk music innit?

Tracklist:

The EP & Compilations:

A1 The Recruited Collier 2:42
A2 The Doffing Mistress 1:27
A3 Lowlands 3:15
A4 My Bonnie Boy 2:53
A5 Polly Vaughan 4:25
B1 Rosemary Lane 2:44
B2 Gathering Rushes In The Month Of May 4:51
B3 The Whirly Whorl 1:17
B4 The Stonecutter Boy 1:57
B5 Martinmas Time 4:56

The LP:

C1 Blackwater Side 3:54
C2 The Snow It Melts The Soonest 2:23
C3 Willie O Winsbury 5:33
C4 Go Your Way 4:14
C5 Thorneymoor Woods 3:36
D1 The Cuckoo 3:11
D2 Reynardine 3:00
D3 Young Tambling 10:44
D4 Living By The Water 3:55
D5 Maa Bonny Lad 1:18

DOWNLOAD here maa bonny lads'n'lasses

Sandy Denny – "Studio Outtakes - Home Demos - Unheard Songs" (2010)

These are the "Studio Outtakes ,Home Demos ,and Unheard Songs" section of that massive 19CD box set of everything Sandy recorded ever!?..which would set you back quite a few hundred quid,mostly for stuff you already have...but not these 127 intimate versions of her future studio work,plus songs that were never heard beyond Sandy's various living rooms.Everything from Fairport to Fotheringay,from the Folk Club years to the record company compliant Adult Orientated rock of 'Rendezvous',is here in a superior, stripped down form with Sandy's perfect Voice whispering in your ears.Its like she's in the room singing you to sleep......i'm welling up now!.....just don't tell me mates!

Early Home Demos:
12-1 Sandy Denny– Blues Run The Game (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-2 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-3 Sandy Denny– Soho (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-4 Sandy Denny– It Ain't Me Babe (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-5 Sandy Denny– East Virginia (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-6 Sandy Denny– Geordie (Home Demo)
12-7 Sandy Denny– In Memory (The Tender Years) (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-8 Sandy Denny– I Love My True Love (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-9 Sandy Denny– Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-10 Sandy Denny– Ethusel (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-11 Sandy Denny– Carnival (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-12 Sandy Denny– Setting Of The Sun (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-13 Sandy Denny– Boxful Of Treasures (Home Demo)
12-14 Sandy Denny– They Don't Seem To Know You (Home Demo)
12-15 Sandy Denny– Gerrard Street (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-16 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-17 Sandy Denny– She Moves Through The Fair (Home Demo)
12-18 Sandy Denny– The Time Has Come (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-19 Sandy Denny– Seven Virgins (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-20 Sandy Denny– A Little Bit Of Rain (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-21 Sandy Denny– Go Your Own Way My Love (Home Demo)
12-22 Sandy Denny– Cradle Song (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-23 Sandy Denny– Blue Tattoo (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-24 Sandy Denny– The Quiet Land Of Erin (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-25 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)

Sandy Denny Solo And Fairport Convention:
13-1 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-2 Sandy Denny– Motherless Children (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-3 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-4 Sandy Denny– Been On The Road So Long
13-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Land Of Erin
13-6 Sandy Denny– Autopsy (Demo)
13-7 Sandy Denny– Now And Then (Demo)
13-8 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Version)
13-9 Sandy Denny– She Moved Through The Fair (Unreleased Version)
13-10 Fairport Convention– Mr. Lacey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-11 Fairport Convention– Throwaway Street Puzzle
13-12 Fairport Convention– Ballad Of Easy Rider (Outtake)
13-13 Fairport Convention– Dear Landlord (Outtake)
13-14 Fairport Convention– A Sailors Life (Alternative Version)
13-15 Fairport Convention– Sir Patrick Spens (Outtake)
13-16 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 1)
13-17 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 4)

Fotheringay:
14-1 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-2 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-3 Fotheringay– The Pond And The Stream (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-4 Fotheringay– The Way I Feel (Unreleased Alternative Take)
14-5 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-6 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-7 Fotheringay– Silver Threads And Golden Needles (Outtake)
14-8 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased)
14-9 Fotheringay– Two Weeks Last Summer
14-10 Fotheringay– Nothing More
14-11 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile
14-12 Fotheringay– Memphis Tennessee
14-13 Fotheringay– Trouble In Mind (Unreleased)
14-14 Fotheringay– Bruton Town (Unreleasedl)

Sandy Denny: The North Star Grassman And The Ravens:
15-1 Sandy Denny– The Sea Captain (Unreleased Demo)
15-2 Sandy Denny– Next Time Around (Unreleased Demo)
15-3 Sandy Denny– The Optimist (Unreleased Demo)
15-4 Sandy Denny– Wretched Wilbur (Unreleased Demo)
15-5 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased Demo)
15-6 Sandy Denny– Lord Bateman (Unreleased Demo)
15-7 Sandy Denny With Richard Thompson– Walking The Floor Over You (Unreleased)
15-8 Sandy Denny– Losing Game (Outtake)
15-9 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens (Unreleased)
15-10 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased)
15-11 Sandy Denny– Late November
15-12 Sandy Denny With Ian Matthews– If You Saw Thru My Eyes
15-13 Sandy Denny With The London Symphony Orchestra– It's A Boy (From 'Tommy')
15-14 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens
15-15 Sandy Denny– The 12th Of Never (Unreleased Studio Demo)
15-16 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
15-17 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Demo)
15-18 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Demo)

Sandy Denny: Sandy And Like An Old Fashioned Waltz:
16-1 Sandy Denny– It'll Take A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-2 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
16-3 Sandy Denny– For Nobody To Hear (Unreleased Demo)
16-4 Sandy Denny– Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Unreleased Demo)
16-6 Sandy Denny– Listen, Listen (Unreleased Demo)
16-7 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Unreleased Demo)
16-8 Sandy Denny– Bushes And Briars (Unreleased Demo)
16-9 Sandy Denny– It Suits Me Well (Unreleased Demo)
16-10 Sandy Denny– The Music Weaver (Demo)
16-11 Sandy Denny– No End (Unreleased Alternate Take)
16-12 Sandy Denny– Whispering Grass (Unreleased Demo)
16-13 Sandy Denny– Until The Real Thing Comes Along (Unreleased Demo)
16-14 Sandy Denny– Walking The Floor Over You (Alternative Version)
16-15 Sandy Denny– No End (Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny - Rendezvous:
18-1 Sandy Denny– Blackwaterside (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-2 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-3 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Unreleased Acoustic Demo)
18-4 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Unreleased Acoustic Version)
18-5 Sandy Denny With Jess Roden– Losing Game
18-6 Sandy Denny– Easy To Slip (Outtake)
18-7 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-8 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-9 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Live In The Studio)
18-10 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Unreleased Choral Version)
18-11 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-12 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-13 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-14 Sandy Denny– Candle In The Wind (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-15 Sandy Denny– Moments (Outtake)
18-16 Sandy Denny– I Wish I Was A Fool For You (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-17 Sandy Denny– Gold Dust (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-18 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-19 Sandy Denny– Moments (Unreleased Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny: Home Demos 1974-1977:
19-1 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Demo)
19-2 Sandy Denny– Rising For The Moon (Demo)
19-3 Sandy Denny– One More Chance (Demo)
19-4 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Unreleased Demo)
19-5 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Unreleased Demo)
19-6 Sandy Denny– What Is True? (Demo)
19-7 Sandy Denny– Stranger To Himself (Demo)
19-8 Sandy Denny– Take Away The Load (Demo)
19-9 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
19-10 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Demo)
19-11 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Demo)
19-12 Sandy Denny– Take Me Away (Demo)
19-13 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Demo)
19-14 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Demo)
19-15 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Demo)
19-16 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Demo)
19-17 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Demo)
19-18 Sandy Denny– Full Moon 2(Unreleased Demo)
19-19 Sandy Denny– Makes Me Think Of You (Unreleased Demo)

DOWNLOAD to hear the unheard here Folkies!

Sandy Denny and the Happy Blunderers - "Lincoln Folk Festival 24th July 1971" (Bootleg)

The highpoint of Contemporary Folk Rock in the summer of 1971 was on full display in Lincoln of all places. With Denny listed half way up the bill.The Americans seem to be the stars at this one.It could have easily been inverted.Never been a great fan of James Taylor myself.

The Happy Blunderers contained Richard Thompson and Gerry Conway in the same line-up,with the dependable Dave Pegg,and seem to have done a good job on this wobbly audience cassette recording,but survive it does,and there's plenty of Sandy's intra-song banter which always amuses. The dodgy quality just adds to the pathos for me.

Oh!Sandy why????.... WHYYYYY?!...yeah that's right I love her like a screaming girlie at a Beatles gig.

Sandy leaving the stage at Lincoln sporting one of her best hairstyles

Tracklisting:

1. Late November

2. The Northstar Grassman and The Ravens

3. Down in the Flood

4. Blackwaterside

5. The Optimist

6. Next Time Around

7. Crazy Lady Blues

8. John The Gun

DOWNLOAD when Sandy wuz a star on earth rather than a star in heaven HERE!

Sandy Denny – "Live At The BBC (1966-1973)" (Island Records – 984 992-8)

Staying on the Folk singers at the Beeb kinda thing,here's a personal fav/obsession,the late,great, Sandy Denny.Of course Y'all have all her works i expect,so i'll restrict it to BBC appearances and the odd bootleg....you may be relieved to hear?

To use a maritime expression,something that Sandy often turned to in her lyrics,She sailed too close to the rocks of the Singer/Songwriter category on several occasions; but the lighthouse shone a dark light in her doomed direction, and she went under like most of the crews of the sea-faring vessels she wrote about.

The sheer nerve that Island Records have in releasing Sandy's BBC appearances after dropping her in '76,and after trying to get her to lighten up her material a bit is nothing short of despicable.They deserve all the illegal downloads we can muster.Of course they panicked because of Punk Rock,not only dropping some great acts,but ruining The Slits to boot!

"I'm Not Hearing A Single Here?", was often mentioned by the record executive twats,who were responsible for making her record a limp version of Reg's "Candle In The Wind" to release as a chart flop.Not to mention "Whispering Grass" and several terrible Rockers that spoilt all of her otherwise great albums.She should have kept those Dark and diminished chord structures. She herself thought she was gonna be a big star,and failed to realise that her material was an acquired taste,suitable for cult audiences only.That coupled with a drink problem,falling down stairs for fun, and having a boyfriend/Husband with a wildly roving eye...not that Randy Sandy was innocent of this too?...it all added up to the inevitable tragic ending that bewitched anyone that had anything to do with Joe Boyd,which reads like a list of Pop Star Do's and Don't's(Syd Barratt, Nick Drake, and the lovely Sandy). Failed fame's a killer kids,be content with anonymity and live a full life.

Tracklist:

In Session:
CD1-1 Fhir A' Bhata (BBC - Folk Song Cellar)
CD1-2 Green Grow the Laurels (BBC - Folk Song Cellar 2/12/66)
CD1-3 Hold On To Me Babe (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-4 Blues Run The Game (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-5 Late November (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-6 The Optimist (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-7 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-8 The Lowlands Of Holland (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-9 It Suits Me Well (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-10 The Music Weaver (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-11 Bushes And Briars (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-12 It'll Take A Long Time (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-13 Solo (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-14 Like An Old Fashioned Waltz (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-15 Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-16 Until The Real Thing Comes Along (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-17 Whispering Grass (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-18 Dark The Night (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-19 Solo (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)

In Concert:
CD2-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-2 Sweet Rosemary (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-3 The Lady (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-4 Bruton Town (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-5 Next Time Around (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-6 Blackwaterside (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-7 John The Gun (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-8 The Lady (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-9 Bushes And Briars (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-10 It Suits Me Well (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-11 Blackwaterside (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-12 The Music Weaver (BBc - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-13 The Sea Captain (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-14 John The Gun (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-15 Dialogue - Interview (Tomorrow's People BBC World Service Programme 1972)

DVD.....you can see these on you tube by clicking below:
DVD3-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-2 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-3 Late November (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)

"Off-Air" Recordings:
CD4-1 This Train (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-2 Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-3 The Last Thing On My Mind (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-4 You Never Wanted Me (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-5 Been On The Road So Long (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-6 The Quiet Land Of Erin (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-7 Sweet Nightingale (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-8 Blackwaterside (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-9 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - Sounds Of The 70s)

DOWNLOAD Sandy at the Beeb HERE!

Bridget St. John – "BBC Radio 1968-1976" (Hux Records – HUX114) 2010

Like I said in the "Ask Me No Questions" review,Peel made sure Bridget would get plenty sessions and radio appearances he having a glad eye for the ladies. So here's the small matter of 40 -odd 'odd' tunes as preserved by the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation;and it's not gone beyond my notice that the final track has a reference to Peel and Wife (the Pig).There's also an amusing anecdote spewed forth by the laconic Peel about how they 'slept' together once.

What strikes me most about these tunes, and especially her spoken explanations of her songs, that is uncannily like Sandy Denny.If i didn't know better, her speaking voice is almost exactly that of the late Alexandra Denny,although her earlier excursions have that splash of Nico's lower register about them that would haunt any review in the music press.She was a better guitar player than Denny (That Bert Jansch influence?),and far less depressing than Nico,but her songwriting has that same seldom used diminished 5th chord so favored by Sandy Denny in her more unpopular songs for it's distinctive dark timbre,as well as that vibrato free folkie singing style that was the ex-Fairport chanteuse's trademark;although obviously not copyrighted.

And, yes, Kevin Ayers makes a guest appearance on a few tracks too.Also interesting to note that Ms St.John is the only one of these names to remain alive,and gigging, to this day.

Tracklist:

1-1 I Don't Know If I Can Take It
1-2 Some Kind Of Beautiful
1-3 Jumblequeen
1-4 Fly High
1-5 Sparrowpit
1-6 Want To Be With You
1-7 Curious And Woolly
1-8 Head And Heart
1-9 Long Long Time
1-10 Come Up And See Me Sometime
1-11 Catch A Falling Star
1-12 Love Lie Easy
1-13 The River
1-14 Song To Keep You Company
1-15 Night In The City
1-16 Lazarus
1-17 Curl Your Toes
1-18 Thank You For...
2-1 Sparrowpit
2-2 Nancy Alice
2-3 Plain And Pearl
2-4 Make Me Whole
2-5 She Used To Play Harmonium
2-6 Crazy, Have You Eton
2-7 Peel 'sleeping Anecdote'
2-8 Bumper To Bumper
2-9 Leaves Of Lime
2-10 City Crazy
2-11 The Pebble And The Man
2-12 Back To Stay
2-13 Song For The Laird Of Connaught Hall - Part 2
2-14 Jolie Madame
2-15 The Spider And The Fly
2-16 The Oyster And The Flying Fish
2-17 To B Without A Hitch
2-18 Ask Me No Questions
2-19 Many Happy Returns
2-20 Hello Again (of Course)
2-21 Rochefort
2-22 Lizard Long Tongue Boy
2-23 The Present Song/Pig & Peel

CD1 1-9 Radio 1 In Concert 1st August 1974; CD1 10-12 Top Gear Session 6th January 1976 CD1 13-16 John Peel Presents Top Gear 1969; CD1 17 Peter Sarstedt Session 1969; CD1 18 Bob Harris Session 22nd March 1972; CD2 1-8 Radio 1 In Concert 3rd May 1975; CD2 9-16 Radio 1 In Concert 31st January 1971; CD2 17-22 Night Ride Session 21st August 1968; CD2 23 Top Gear Session 12th August 1974

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