Five great songs for Hallowe’en that you’ve never heard
31
Oct

For a podcast version of this click Hallowe’en Songs Podcast

Just quickly …

Trying to get away from the usual Thriller, Monster Mash, Rocky Horror stuff, here’s five great records to celebrate the slaughter of millions of innocent pumpkins. Enjoy.

Waltzinblack – The Stranglers

When My kids were small their horrible parents wouldn’t let them go trick or treating on principle. Instead, we used to switch off all the lights in the house and play this extremely loud. Happy times. Although the neighbours did call social services a couple of times.

Bikini Girls With Machine Guns – The Cramps

There are two kinds of people. On the one hand there are those who see a link to a song called “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns” and OTOH there are the extremely boring. The Cramps did more horror-y type songs than this but none of them have bikini girls with machine guns in the vid. And this begins with the line “Well I been drag racing on LSD”.

Look Out There’s A Monster Coming – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

From the sixties TV show “The Viv And Neil Minstrel Show” which was on ITV so I never got to watch it despite being old enough to remember it being on. No idea why all the band except Neil Innes were blacked up. May ask him on Twitter, so watch this space just in case.

Zombie Jamboree – Harry Belafonte

Several versions of this around but I guess Harry was the most famous so there’s a vid clip of him. They had some weird stuff that passed for light entertainment in the early sixties.

Dr Frankenstein’s Disco Party

In 1977 my wife went to her local record shop (for younger readers, these were shops where you could go to buy bits of plastic which had downloads imprinted on them by scientific means). She purchased the big Abba hit “Knowing Me Knowing You” ( a phrase later made famous by drag act Steve Coogan) and when she got it home, she found an extra record in the bag which was this. She played it once, disliked it intensely and threw it away. That was when her run of bad luck began …

Happy Hallowe’en – if you haven’t done so already, check out today’s Google Doodle. It made me 8=)

 

 

 

Afternoon Delight
30
Oct

I once read that the legendary German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk work six days a week in the studio, and on the seventh day they listen to and play no music at all, of any kind. I’ve never understood this. I’m not knocking it since they seem to make some great music working that way, but …

I cannot imagine a day without music. Its what makes life worth living as far as I am concerned.

Music has been a major bonding factor between me and my friends, between me and my parents, between me and my wife, and between me and my kids.

I quite like music. You get the idea.

Live music in particular, whether its a band I know and love playing a big stadium gig, down to an intimate folky concert in a small bar, and all points inbetween.

I’ll happily go and see a gig in Camden featuring four bands I’ve never heard of – I always end up liking at least a couple of them.  This was what led me to Alphabeat, Ida Maria, Airborne Toxic Event, Grammatics … and many more.

I can’t honestly recall a completely wasted evening spent watching live music.

Even the terrible bands are interesting, for the wrong reasons. To this day all I have to do is say to my wife “Louder, louder, louder” and we both grin like idiots at the memory of the worst – and yes, the loudest – band we ever did see. I’m sorry if you’re reading this and you were in a band called The Electrics in the early 80s, but frankly you deserve it for the kicking you gave to “Nutbush City Limits”, a fine song which never did you any harm.

In short, a week without live music is a week wasted. And I realised earlier to my horror that this last week has been a wasteland, apart from the parodical musical stylings of Bill Bailey doing a rendition of what “Scarborough Fair” would sound like sung by Rammstein. Which was brilliant, of course, as was the rest of the show.

This is why I head into Barnstaple on a Sunday afternoon to watch a classic rawk covers band playing at Marshall’s pub. Ten Feet Tall, they’re called. Two oldish guys playing bass and drums (as opposed to drum and bass), an excellent young guitarist and a girl vocalist up front – a masterstroke when you need somebody to hit the high notes in “Highway To Hell” and “Run To The Hills” without losing any power.

Ten Feet Tall are way, way better than they need to be for a Sunday afternoon in Barnstaple, and more power to them.

The crowd are mainly in their 40s upwards, plus a few younger people intrigued at the packed house and the great sounds filtering into the street. In the break I have a quick walk round to check such action as there may be elsewhere – all the other town centre pubs have a maximum of ten paying clients and zero atmosphere. God bless the proprietor at Marshall’s, they always have music on a Sunday arvo and its always packed. Other pubs in rural market towns who wish to attract drinking customers, please note.

So, Barnstaple may only have one Sunday afternoon music venue, but its friendly, welcoming and the bands play songs people know. Twill suffice until I get back to Ver Smoke tomorrow …

… and over the next fortnight I intend to make up for the gig drought in a big way.  I’ve got Young Knives on Tuesday, Chairlift on Thursday, Her Name Is Calla on Friday, the Airborne Toxic Event on Saturday and Los Bloody Campesinos next Sunday afternoon. The week after its The Chap and a fantastic Welsh acid-folk band called Colorama who I have been dying to see for a couple of years now.

Can’t wait !

I’ll be blogging about all these things and more. Hope you enjoy reading it.

www.lemonrock.com/tenfeettall