France's Eurovision entry, Sebastian Tellier singing Divine was clearly too good to get anywhere in the competition. Obviously an eccentric man singing a lovely slice of breezy pop with nonsense lyrics just doesn't work anymore. It has to be all overblown and Russian to win. What a disappointment. Must be bad if Terry Wogan is thinking of throwing in the towel.
There's something I don't quite trust about Goldfrapp. They seem like musical tourists - "now we're visiting folk!", that sort of thing. But that aside, I've been won over by their latest single Happiness and its accompanying video, which is a little bundle of joy (via Creative Review which links to an extensive discussion of whether or not it's any good/what is it ripped off etc). The director, Dougal Wilson has an impressive track record having done Goldfrapp's A&E, Jarvis's Don't Let Him Waste Your Time and that freaky Will Young video.
My blogging mojo has totally gone this week so here's a video for Traffic's Paper Sun. The song is a fab sitar-heavy stomper and the video stands out from all the other clips of 60s bands in suits and screaming girlies by featuring them wandering languidly round a natural history museum (possibly the Natural History Museum). Sound and vision don't seem to be in harmony but each one is a pleasure in itself.
Got a bit of sad news today from audiac - Glasgow's RAFA Club is closing this weekend. An anonymous-looking little place off Woodlands Road, it's an indie mecca, hosting characterful club nights within its quirky walls. Certainly I used to go there back in the day, first to Good Foot, then Twister and some club that Alan Horne (of Postcard) ran for a while, amongst others. It's a brilliant venue. There's a ballroom downstairs that has a huge Mod target printed on the ceiling and a mural of fighter planes down one wall. Pictures of the Queen everywhere. Were there Airfix models hanging from the ceiling or is that the drink talking? The dancefloor was just big enough and it was dingy in a sort of atmospheric way. The booze was cheap and the (ex-RAF) bar staff were lovely. They'd make you a hot toddy when it got cold. It was weird going in (wasn't there something odd like you had to buy a raffle ticket to get in?); indie kids shuffling past the veterans but everyone got along fine. My favourite memory was turning up early one night to find that the charity danceathon in aid of Childline was overrunning. There were lots of 12-year old in leotards jumping about while the bowlies lined up on the stairs. It was that kind of place.
If you'd like to pay your last respects National Pop League are doing their Little League night there on Friday. Somebody get some photos, will ya? As a musical tribute, here's a song that really reminds me of going there:
This used to be a Good Foot favourite, although it's more baroque pop than northern soul. That was one of the great things about growing up in Glasgow. These clubs provided such a great musical education and there were lots of blurred lines between different tastes and genres. And good influences beget good bands which explains why Glasgow's produced so many of them. I hope the old place gets a good send off tomorrow.
I've been a bit distracted for the past few days so here's a musical interlude. Stereolab's Wow and Flutter on YouTube. God, I love this song. They were always so cool, it's good to see them pratting about in capes. Nice line in Open University-style infographics too.
I watched the Mercury Music Prize last night hoping The Young Knives would win. It didn't seem very likely but the winner is usually so random they probably stood as good a chance as anyone. Last night they had the best suits and even better glasses and were one of the few bands who could string a sentence together. The video above for Weekdays and Bleakdays has a whole slew of great things in it - boring jobs, chippies, postcards, picnic baskets, seaside, camping stoves, and I like the way they go to the beach and keep their suits on. More videos here:
'I used to say some people make money and some make history - which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive' - Anthony H. Wilson.
I only heard this quote recently and thought it was very clever and very true (although I didn't realise how true it was for him) - the sort of thing you could expect from Tony Wilson, who died yesterday aged 57. I read 24 Hour Party People recently, which is brilliant. Amazing and exciting. Makes you realise what a special thing he did. There's real inspiration in his bloody-minded determination to do something you believe in and to fight conventional wisdom with common sense and a bit of spark. Before that I read Stoned by Andrew Loog Oldham who was doing something similar in the 60s. They both show how difficult it was (and probably still is) to change the way an industry works. It's easy to sit in a stultifying office job and think it must be really exciting to work in the entertainment industry, how it would all be different there, but these stories make it clear it's just the same. Constantly battling against bosses and bureaucracy and entrenched ways of working that no longer deliver what people want. So, there's a lot of inspiration in seeing how people create something great. They might make mistakes in the process, but they follow their noses and get somewhere in the end. What they both demonstrate is how you can do something amazing by not worrying about perfecting a finished product or making a fortune but actually doing something and getting it out there then seeing what happens next. Taking chances and making mistakes. It's staggering how difficult it is to do that. So, respect due.
RIP Lee Hazlewood 1929-2007. Probably my favourite singer of all time and one of the few people who could get away with a moustache like that. There are tributes all over the internet so there's no need to say more. Suffice to say it's a sad day, even though it's been on the cards for a while. These are for everyone who was a fan - two of my favourites from Love and Other Crimes:
New favourite tune - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More by Candie Payne, from Liverpool. They must pump 60s nostalgia through the water there. This is heavily influenced by lots of good things - cool film soundtracks more than anything else. Enjoy.
Day 5: music. I didn't think I was too bad with music, having my finger maybe not on the pulse but a pulse at least. Last year I enjoyed lots of new music and lots of old music as well. I'm trying to thing of what was new: King Creosote, King Biscuit Time (two bands from Fife with King in their name - what are the chances?), Maximo Park, and one Sufjan Stephens song which left me wanting more. The most different band I heard was The North Sea Radio Orchestra who have an amazingly distinct sound, like a sort of Broadcast meets University Challenge. Also found today these lovely people - Hamilton Yarns from Brighton who sound like Ivor Cutler crossed with Oliver Postgate. Sweet. I still end up listening to the same old stuff though and need a bit of variety. One new blog Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop looks like it's full of inspiring stuff. What else am I missing?
I always find new year quite a miserable time. It's the post-holiday come down and the grind of going back to work; the weight of unmade or quickly broken resolutions - knowing that this is it for another year and come December nothing will have changed. So I start each year thinking that something amazing might happen. It might not, but that's not worth contemplating. Instead I convince myself that this year something really great is going to come out of the blue and make everything okay. I don't know what the thing is, or exactly what okay means but still, I started last year like this and it got me through. Giving up some responsibility to fate takes the pressure off a bit. And it always makes me think of this lovely Zombies song. I'm sure 2007 will be our year. For sure.
Colours Are Brighter is an album of songs for children, compiled by Mick Cooke of Belle & Sebastian. The line-up is impressive (B&S, Franz Ferdinand, The Divine Comedy and more), the songs sound good, and the artwork by Marc Baines is lovely. Plus it's for a good cause - proceeds to Save the Children. The only drawback is it's not out until October 16.
Love singer Arthur Lee dies at 61. This has been a bad year. Another legend gone. Shame.
The Commodores' keyboard player died recently, and in an obit Alvin read it mentioned how the band found their name - by opening a dictionary at random. They could have been called Commode had they been unlucky. On Thursday, Alvin and I opened our respective dictionaries at random, finding words to turn into bands, the object of the game being to try to describe how a band of the moniker in question would sound. Trying to make the bands seem plausible.Burly : 1974 masculine glam (with beards ?). Four Len Tuckeys in Bully Beef-style hooped jumpers. Geordie soundalikes. On a smallish label like Penny Farthing. Recently rediscovered by third division glam archaeologists like Bob Stanley.
The Even-Stevens : Speccy-four-eyes literate indie, 'eighties-style : Smiths; Go-Betweens; Servants.
The Leer : Directionless 1981 sixth form band consisting of a mod, a wannabe arty boy in eyeliner, a Stranglers fan and a meat-and-potatoes rock drummer.
The full list is on Steviecat's Livejournal. Well worth a read.
Sad. Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett dies at 60. Two from him: It is obvious, the first song I thought of, and Late night, my favourite. For Cas and all Syd fans everywhere.*
* I don't know much about posting mp3s. Is there a better way to do it?
I've never seen the Beatles cartoons before so I'm working through some clips on YouTube. They're great. Some of the animation was directed by George Dunning at the same studio (TVC) as Yellow Submarine so it's really colourful and wiggy. The accents done by US voiceover artist Paul Frees (John and George) and famous UK posh bloke Lance Percival (Paul and Ringo) are fantastically all-over-the-place. They were "Americanised" to suit the US audience but it's more like a mixture of Scouse, Welsh and Pakistani. There are some nice little singalong bits like Paperback Writer and She said she said and as they were made between 1965 and 1969 the songs are some of their finest. Two more clips: Strawberry Fields Forever and And Your Bird Can Sing, and more background on the series at Television Heaven. And for dessert two clips of the real life human Beatles looking gorgeous in Kew Gardens: Paperback Writer and Rain.
Very sad - Grant McLennan from The Go-Betweens died at home in Brisbane yesterday. I saw them in Govan Town Hall years and years ago - they were a great band. I still get that that "Tallulah took a shower for an hour" line in my head every time I have one. Some clips from YouTube - Bachelor Kisses, Spring Rain and Right Here.
