A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 9 Jack Kerouac

 

The NME back in those days was a cradle of learning for troubled teens and twenty somethings further down The Road. Leaving hime. Embarked on journeys of self discovery. I was one of them and have no regrets about the age I was born into. I fastened myself to The NME and tried to gather information and inspiration as well as I was able given my youth and innocence.

This week's NME gave a whole page to Jack Kerouac and an opportunity to Biba Kopf, one of its key writers, (and if memory serves a Birthday Party devotee,) to write a rhapsodic page if dense prose about Jack's troubled passage.He takes Memory Babe - A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac by Gerald Nicosia as his starting point and journeys on from there. 

The article that Kopf produced is both scrupulously reserarched, engaged, committed and makes the reader want to go from there and learn more. Or else start scribbling themselves.  It's worth the 45p cost of the issue alone .

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 55 Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

 

I'm sorry. Respect and all that. But the last thing I want to listen to on a bright Saturday morning is another Sisters of Mercy album. regardless of its considerable, undoubtable merits. Driving another stake itnto the heart of the Lord of Darkness. Give me Laughing Len. Or Jacques. Au suivant. Forgive me Andrew. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,047 Perfume Genius

 

'When I see the glory. I ain't got a worry.'

There's a new album called Glory from Perfume Genius.Just out.  His seventh. As always with Mike Hadreas every moment is suffused with passion, romance and engagement. Talent. I put it on in my flat as I bathe and dress. 

It's lush, textured romance.Bruised, damaged. But wonderfully pure. Free of regret. And moving upwards towards the light, Where we all want to be. Where we deserve to be. Give it a listen, Make it a soundtrack for your weekend.  Bathe in it.

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 8 Nationwide Gig Guide

 

These days we search for things to do, gigs to see on our phones. In those days you looked on the NME Gig Guide. Bruce Springsteen was playing Wembley Stadium. All three nights were sold out. 

The Chameleons, Green On Red and Jonathan Richman were in London. Pete Seeger was at The Royal Albert Hall. Somply Red were playing Ronnie Scott's. Neil Innes played an open air gig in Harlow.

The Armoury Show were at Tiffany's in Newcastle. The Nightingales and Jason & The Scorchers were touring the country.As were Marc Riley & The Creepers.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,621 Supergrass - I Should Coco

 

Youth. Very few records scream Youth quite as clearly as I Should Coco. Suergrass were pure joy when they first appeared. The moment in life when you realise you can grow furry sideburns. And seize the opportunuty,

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 56 Kate Bush - The Dreaming

 

When The Dreaming came out out it was not taken entirely seriously. But ut was a statement of immense bravery from Kate Bush. An assertion of herself as a pantheon artist. Laying the paving for the Hounds of Love where she broke the tape for the gold. I don't actually have a copy of Hounds of Love. This is enough for me. I'll put this one on as I prepare for my half seven virtual lesson in Dussledorf. A magnificent achievement in every respect.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,046 Dean Wareham

 

It's a Friday morning. My lesson is planned, my bath is run, and I have a Dean Wareham album to enjoy, Life could be worse. He's a treasurable artist Wareham. One who notice the motes in the sunlight and sings their praises.. He's learned the lessons that need learning from mentors like Lou Reed, Lee Hazlewood and Tom Verlaine, picked up the torch and carried it onward. 

That's The Price of Loving Me is ten songs of boho vision. Spaced and crafted  songs.. In my case they took me from quarter to six to half past as the sun rose in Newcastle heavens. The best way to spend time.Wistful mastery of a form. A description of love. An awreness of mortality. A calm acceptance of it. An album of xonsummate grace. Choose your time but make the space. The fabric of life is made of such small, intricate joys.

101 Essential Rock Records # 44 Jeff Beck - Truth

 

'A masterful display of Beck's chops.'

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 53 XL Recordings

 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,622 Saturday Night Film Fever OST

 

As definituve a 1977 album as any Punk record. As an eleevn year old it struck me as slightly weird. The Movie is tough as nails.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 57 Echo & The Bunnymen - Crocodiles

 

A new Wave of Psychedelia at the end of the Sevnties. A very important record to me when I first heard it a couple of years later. I fastened myself to records and bands in those days. It was a good thing to do. I'm pleased with my young self. And the bands were worth attaching yourself to im those days. They had vision, ambition drive and belief. A sense of mission.

As for Crocodiles. It was disquieting, Also inspiring. The record I was looking for without realising I was looking for it, . I love the guitars. The voice. The passion. The sense of unease. But also the fact that it wedded itself to melody and dark romanticism. It still sounds magical and darkly seductivee. Mystery. Love's secret ingredient.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,045 Eliza Niemi

 

The latest catch from Starbuck. Captain Ahab's best mate. Darren Jones, for it is he, appeared like an apparition on the maindeck of It Starts yesterday brandishing a fresh catch. The latest delicasies from the High Seas for the captain's table. Ahoy me hearties !

First up Eliza Niemi's Progress Bakery. A new artist to me. Wonky Americana Indie. Although Eliza hails from Toronto. This is a record that makes no effort to conform to the given script. In the way that Jad Fair, Roches, Laurie Anderson, and the like didn't way back in their day.

This is an odd record and not exactly easy listening. On the surface it's homey and easy going like the smalltown high street pictured on the record sleeve but actually it's a rather unsettling and uncomfortable listen. 

You get the sense that all is not quite what it seems to be but  can't quite figure out what. The voices are treated and unsettling. Thanks for this Darren. I'm not entirely sure what I think of this record but I'm glad I've heard it. .  

101 Essential Rock Records # 43 Grateful Dead - Anthem Of The Sun

 

Calfornia acid rock at its most potent and mind altering.

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 52 Warner Bros Records

 

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 7 Charts

 

Sister Sledge were Number One in the Single Charts with Frankie. Madonna was Number Two with Crazy For You. A gurlfriend sang that down the telephone line to me one time, That was nice. The Redskins Bring It Down was # 21. But I suspect they weren't invited on Top Of The Pops. They were Trotskyites. Walking On Sunshine was dropping like a stone

The Cult and New Order topped the respective Independent Singles and Album charts. There was a Danclefloor 15 supplied by Sister Ray's of Brighton which included T.Rex, Hoodoo Gurus, The Doors, The Smiths, Iggy Pop, Nancy Sinatra. And erm Gary Glitter.

The paper listed Lest We Firget Single charts from 5, 10, 15 and 20 years previously. And also Half Term Reports for the year which Jesus & Mary Chain, The Velvet Underground and Anthony Braxton headed.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,623 The Alan Parsons Projest - Eye In The Sky

 

This album came out the year I left secondary school. I would have been aware if it but I'd already chosen my fork in the road. The side of the bed I wished to lie on. This kind of Prog awe had no appeal to me. I just found it frighteningly bland and unappealling. A radio channel I would just turn over.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 58 AC / DC - Back in Black

 

When I was at school some of the kids in the playground used to burble on about AC/DC. A guy called Jason Burby. Talk of Bon Scott. Songs called Beating Aroind The Bush. The thought didn't appeal them and it still doesn't. O hear a song occasionally that sounds alright. Has a ceryain kind of earthy appeal. But I'm sirry I can't face a whole album this morning, I leave that to Jason Burby wherever he is.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,044 Greentea Peng

 

TELL DEM IT'S SPRING ! Hold your horses Greantea Peng. It's not even April yet, But this, her secind year is a good orecursor of longer days and warmer weather ahead. Her second record it's brimming over with positivity and good vibes.

Multiciltural vibes. Fluid London poetic vibes. Rapping. She's coming to Newcastle soon. I might have to check my finances. This is rather a lovely wau to start the day. Old School. New School

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,622 Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been

 

Let's face it. With Dinisaur Jr. you kniw what you're getting. Blazing guitar soloing. Ennui. Confusion. Self Pity. Heroic guitar soloing. This is a good one. 

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 51 Virgin Records

 

Richard Branson

101 Essential Rock Records # 42 The Band - Music For Big Pink

 

'cleared the air with a refreshing lack of pretense.'

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 6 The Letters Page

 

We used to write letters back in thise days. I still have a drawer of them in my desk for the moments that I feel wistless.

This weeks collection, edited by Matt Snow is a good example of what went on week after week. Jusr inside the back cover. A cross letter to Paul Weller accusing him of lacking commitment and engagement in a Style Council live show. Selling the auduence short. Hevy handed bouncer approach.

A number more angry types having a pop at Weller and Socialism. A turade against Bruce Springsteen. Some more back and forth about him. He's made a donation to the miner's cause.Onto Lana Pellay an LGBT perfirmer recently featured. Much political rage. An interesting window on a highly politicl decade when a lot seemed on the line. Isn't it always?

. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 59 Aztec Camera - High Land. Hard Rain

 

Whenever I think about this extraordinary debut album I draw the same conclusion. The best album I know of what it feels like to be seventeen. Made when I was seventeen. How lucky was I. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,043 Dutch Interior

 

Tuesday morning. Lessons planned. This gives me an hour with Moneyball. A record by a band from California with artistic sensibilities and apparent indecision about whether they wish to be Pavement or Grizzly Bear.Or the themselves. They strive manfully fir the optimum objective. 

They associations are inevitble but Dutch Interior make the best of them and they manage to plot a course of their own where there's plenty to interest the casual listener. Major chord changes. Introspection. Literary lyrics. Lots of air and light. Space.

Less preoccupation with being cleverer than thou or trying to be English like Malkmus and co. Not so oblique. Greater reflection. Less restlessness. As the album shifts on it becomes more uneasy. It sails a relatuvely steady path to its end destination. .

101 Essential Rock Records # 41 Small Faces -Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

 

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 50 Verve Records

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 60 Sisters of Mercy - First, Last & Always

 

Forks in the road. I never toik the Goth path. I did listen to The Banshees and The Cure a lot. Still do..  But I never dyed my hair or invested in leather jackets or studded wristbands. It's a relief looking back. It's still not an affectation that appeals..

I looked down the playlist of this album with grim foreboding just now. Having to listen to it rather than actually enjoying my afternoon seemed a grim prospect. Like Prometheus or Sysyphus.Chained to their fate.  Then I realised, why not just not listen to it?   And I felt a lot better immediately.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,623 Motorhead - Overkill

 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,042 Men I Trust

  

The seagulls are wheeling outside my window. It's a bright, spring day. The start of another working week. I'n listening to Equus Asinus, the latest album by Canadian Indie contenders Men I Trust. It  has an odd, slightly disconcerting sleeve. A plain, thim bespectatcled everyman ironing a shiry, presumably an office shirt. The life many of us are condemned to from the moment we enter the working environment.

Equus Asinus, reminds us, as the best music does thatwe are humans, first and foremost, and it behoves us not to forget it. It's a record of languid grace. Sad in its tone occasionally, it's not one that's liable to encourage you to jump up and down on your bed, but it's altogether well decked out and thoughtful and I commend it to you. It's forty five minutes well spent. Oh well. Must get ready for work. Breakfast awaits..

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 49 Trojan

 

'Trojan's importance in spreading reggae rocksteady, dub and ska to a global marketplace should not be underestimated.'

101 Essential Rock Records # 40 The Zombies - Odessey & Oracle

 

Few albums comceived in the heat of pf Sgt.Peper's passion hold up as well as Odessey & Oracle.

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 5 Marilyn - Despite Straight Lines

 

The NME reviews are incredibly catty and gossipy. In fact the whole tone of the newspaper is. It reads like a newspaper rather than a magazine. But one that slides between broadsheet and tabloid occasionally. One written under the fierce pressure of deadlines. Tapping typewriters. Cigarettes and booze probaby on the go.

The lead review of a very busy week for albums is strangely for Marilyn. Still robably most famous as being Boy George's mate. Listed in Wikipedia for services to gender bending. Paul Du Noyer who went on to be one of the driving foreces behind Mojo writes the review. He's not very kind to either the album or Marilyn.

These were the days before you got a mark with the review to help you decide whether you acually wanted to read it or not. I imagine Mariltn didn't enjoy reading it too much

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,624 Pixies - Surfer Rosa

 'Walk her every day. To a shady place.'

Whenever I think of Surfer Rosa I picture myself. I'm upstairs in my bedroom in a three story house in Teddington. Abour 23. I'm not well. I'm suffering from a mystery illness. A serious one. It's been diagnosed as Sceleraderma but the causes and effects are still shrouded in blackness. Dr Carol Black and her focused team are working on it a short bus ride from where I'm standing, in Hounslow, as the illness attacks me and tries to claim me as its own. 

I'm listening to Pixies Surfer Rosa. My windows are thrown open and the dial on my NAD. amp is cranked up. 'This is a song for Carol...'  Carol Black? Probably not. That riff. We haven't heard that guitar intensity that shaking the body free of its constrictions for years. Bowie knows. His antennae are up and he recognises fellow travellers. 

I wrote a lyric about the illness I was struggling with. What it felt like. For a band I imagined being in. A song I wanted to sing called Howl. 'I'm living in an elephant skin. Shaken something loose inside. A thing apart from the skin I'm in. Scratching the skin of life...' It was powerful. I knew it was. But neither the song nor the band was ever realised. It was not a million miles from Pixies. Television. Feeling Gravity's Pull.I was feeding off other people's ideas. Greater talents. 

Listening to Surfer Rosa now it's both deranged and profane yet also calculated and maintained. Like all great Rock & Roll debuts an incredible achievement for ones so young. I remember Frank Black, or Black Francis or whoever you want to call him saying he wrote lyrics as mathematical exercises. Equations. Pixies were a perfect formula of distressed sound and ideas.. Like all great bands.

I was young when I bought this record. I could have died from the illness I had. But I didn't. I'm sitting at my desk listening to the sme physical object that I listened to in my room in Teddington in 1988. My record is immaculate. Unscratched. I saw Pixies at the Doolittle stage. They were phenomenal. David knew. Kurt knew. Me and my mate Andy knew. It shouldn't have taken Fight Club to make the world sit up and pay attention. It was all here. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 61 Orange Juice - You Can't Hide Your Love Forever

 

 'few dispute the greatness and importance of Orange Juice  in the scheme of things nowadays. Not that they weren't divisive in their time and never more so than when this, their debut album, came out. The first line of the NME review of the record said it all. 'Some people find Orange Juice irritating...'  Its writer Leila Sanai going on to emphasise its diversity, itemises what she thinks works well, what works less well, suggests Felicity as the song on the record most likely to achieve the single chart success they clearly craved and overall gives the record a cautious thumbs up.

It's a neat summation of what critics felt about the band and You Can't Hide Your Love Forever. In Sounds meanwhile, Betty Page gave it a thorough slagging, writing it off as contrived amateurism and tooth-rottingly cutesy. It needs saying that Orange Juice willingly put themselves up for such criticism. They came to the album after a string of utterly stunning singles and with their original line up fraying at the edges and just about to split which would lead to Edwyn Collins becoming their de facto leader for the rest of their existence. All in all, they were ripe for a backlash.'

Song(s) of the Day # 4,041 Japanese Breakfast

 

Michelle Zanner of Japanes Breakfast is the consumate modern artist. Bestselling author and social commentator. Friend of the stars. Brought up in Eugene, Oregon and setting off with modest objectives and aspirations she's beem moving in from the margins for years. For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is her latest record.

No surprise. It's worth listening to. Zanner is a creative artist first and foremost. Someone who focuses in the artwork. The market is not the prime consideration. Even though for anybody looking to communicate with as broad an audience as possible, it's always a factor, That's not a sell out. It's consideration. 

She lives in Brooklyn now and has written a memoir about food, Koren American identity and her late mother. Her music is nuanced and expressive. For Melancholy Brunettes  is less celebratory than 2021's Jubilee. She's East Coast. But it's another fine record to get to know and treasure, She's aware of mortality and in a hurry.

What I Did Last Night - Melin Melyn at The Cluny

 'Sometimes the bear will eat you. Sometime you'll eat the bear. And I am eating the bear.'

Joan Armatrading

I wake up with a trapped nerve. At the base of my spine. It's uncomfortable and I'm in slight pain and considerable discomfort. I know I've got a gig tonight in the Ouseburn Valley and I'm wondering how I'll get there. Whether I'll need to take a taxi. I've been in economy drive for the past year and avoid uneccessary expense whenever I can. I'd prefer to walk.

I get up and attend to my blog posts. The central organising component of my day, weekdays and weekend. Good to have an organising principle to orient the ship now. I see It Starts as a seafaring exercise . A vessel on a vast, mysterious ocean. The one great territory still relatively unexplored and open to us all remains the human imagination.  'I wish that I'd sailed the darkened seas. On a great big clipper ship. Going from this land to that. In a sailor's suit and cap.'Thanks Lou. I catch your drift. You keep your heroin mind.

I finish the R.E.M piece which I'm proudest of today and post it, both on the blog and on social media, just after eight. Then I have my bath. I'm not completely happy emotionally either. This is just being alive I realise after almost sixty years, I don't really believe that anyone is ever wholly happy. I'd say as human beings we pretty much experience the whole gamut of emotions in pretty much an hour. Never mind a day. I adopt a positive mindset at all times if I can though. 

The morning is ticking by. I breakfast and think about the pool. But I decide I'll try something different today. I fancy a massage. I live near Newcastle Station. In Pink Lane there are a number of places advertising Thai and Swedish massage. There are any number more in the Streets of Chinatown which lie at the back of the building.

When you think of and mention places like these you cannot but think of slightly more earthy and less salubrious pursuits and pleasures than assisted exercise and treatments for aches and pains. I've never been to one of these places previously. but I think it might be a good idea now. On the way to the pool.My whole back feels trapped frankly.

So I pack my treasured St Michael's open bag with carrots illustrations on it. Make my way down Pink Lane. Knock at the door of the Thai Massage establishent not exactly sure what to expect. I get a 30 minute massage with a very nice Thai woman called Joy, It is all entirely above board and we have a great chat. About all kinds of things,The massage itself is beyond description. Sometimes we forget that we have bodies and it might be an idea to keep better care of them. Joy gives me a gentle and occasuionally not so gentle reminder of this basic truth.

 She is so strong that I get the impression that should she could snap my back at an instant should she choose. But Joy is clearly lovely and I'm sure wouldn't dream of it. As I head up the corridor  to the stairs she puts her palms together in the traditional Thai gesture of farewell.. Next time I'll treat myself and go for the full Monty. I'm not talking about taking all my clothes off folks. I mean the full hour experience.  

I wander down to The Royal Station Hotel and  tell Dave and Adam, behind the desk at the Fitness Centre desk about it. There is some eyebrow raising but I bring the subject back to the experience and recommend it. I do my circuit hour. Jacuzzi, Pool, a brief visit to the sauna. A chat to the regulars and then I'm heading home. 

I find a record that suits my mood. King Creosote's From Scotland With Love. The Highlands call. Rousing, I chop up some plump mushrooms, heat them up. Plop them on toast and eat them while the record spins. Then I have a nap on the sofa. Call mum and get the bonus of a quick chat with my nephew Michael who's off to LA shortly to see his beloved. It's coming up to six. The bleak sun is still in the sky. I shave. Put on a pullover and my coat and scarf and I'm out. Into the Newcastle evening.

I'll spare you of the gory details of my walk to The Cluny. The elements are against me. Let's put it that way. I'n walking into driving rain for 25 minutes. The contagious mood of Saturday night in the Toon rouses me. The determined drive of everybody to have a damned fantastic time whatever the odds is frankly like nowhere else I've ever been so I'm resolved to stay here if I can. I want more of it. Can you blame me?

But as I move away from the crowded Quayside and into The Ouseburn Hillside I feel momentarily like a Dickens character, abandoned and tipped into desolation, despairing of ever reaching my destination.Oliver Twist. Halfway to London.  Of course I do get there, Our minds can play tricks on us. Suddenly I'm broaching and descending the slope. I'm reminded of the idea of getting back to hearth and home. 'My you're soaked. Let's get you out of those wet clothes and I'll fix you your tea in front of the fire.'

In the main Cluny building a Smiths tribute band are playing and the dining and drinking areas are packed. They're sold out. But I don't want to see second hand Smiths. Tribute bands have never appealed much to me. I want to see something current and vital. So I turn on my heels and make my way back to Cluny 2. Where down the years I've see Courtney Barnett, Bill Ryder Jones, Aldous Harding, Dream Syndicate and now I'm looking forward to catching Welsh Indie Mavericks  Melin Melyn 

Walter of Wandering Oak of course is manning the ticket desk as he generally is for every second  gig I get to in Newcastle these days. He's fast approaching local legend status. And with him is Chris of Prancy Dog, that other stalwart of the Newcastle Indie circuit. 

Chris comes across as I enter the venue and we have a great chat. About gigs past. Lives past. Parents. Childhoods. Jobs. Retirement in his case. Essentially early retirement in mine in that I've broken free from stultifying office space and will teach online from now on from my flat or as a digital nomad.

We discuss attractive destinations. Chris is off to Chile and Argentina, I'm more focused on what Europe has to offer, He tells me about his life. Growing up in Aylesbury. Moving to Newcastle. We exchange so much in fifteen minutes. The Indie crcuit in Newcastle is so fundamental for this. Chris puts records out Nev Clay is the latest. And gigs. House Of All is today. I'm taking today off. The Loft coming to Cluny 2 on Friday. He says he'll see me then and rushes off to the front of the stage to see the support.  We've exchanged the story of our lives and a friendship is cemented. 

The least said about the support band the better . I can't find their name to warm you off them but frankly you'll see and hear them coming. Indie Funk Dance. A ghasty category which should have been smothered at birth in the interests of all concerned 'Alright Newcastle ' comes up the cry. 'Are you having a great time!'  'Well actually seeing as you ask I'm not actually. I seem to have lost my Internet connection. Is it your fault. You remind me of Shakatak. Please vacate the stage and my life.' Eventually they do. Thankfully.

There's a long wait for Melin Melyn. Half an hour I'd estimate. Melin Melyn are a six piece and Cluny 2 stage is a small space. They have a windmill god at the head if the stage who is referred to in their set. I know I'm one to moan about labels buy I'm equally prone to them myself. I'm anticipating Super Furry Animals for those who missed them first time round. I won't be unhappy with that, I'm in for a delightful surprise. My expectations are confirmed and wonderfully surpassed.

When Melin Melyn gather and kick off I get up from my seat in darkness and try to find a place in the dense Indie scrum to watch their set. I have some issues. The crowd is too thick for me to get a good view or take the obligatory photos to prove I was there. A modern disease. Eventually I find the happy solution. There's room at the side of the stage at Cluny 2 which is delightfully people free where I'll get a great view of the band and their set. Immediately I realise they're quietly sensational.

Six men in matching overalls..Caps. A front line of guitars, bass, and a hanging sax for the leadman to honk occasionally. A two man seated midfield of steel pedal and keyboards. A drummer in shades. A concept. They are millers at the mill. Fighting corporate greed. Fantastic Mr Fox. It's definitely Wes Anderson. Devo meets Teletubbies.C&W. Merthir Tydfil and Memphis. Childhood television. Camberwick Green and Trumpton.

Impeccable stage banter from the front guy. He chatters between songs. Gives the band's narrative. 'Is Alan Shearer here. This is our first time in Newcastle. This is the band. This song is from our first EP.' Consumate charm. A narrative to buy into. I see an elfin sprite in the crowd. Pretending to be a tree. Twisting her branches. The crowd are slain. .

I spot Chris at the other side of the stage at the front of the scrum. He's beaming ear to ear. This is why we still come to gigs at our age. Because it's worth it When I was young I used to have a silent inner dread of Saturday nights in. Val Doonican. Val, Vickty and Lavinia. I'm still not ready for Saturday Night in front of my TV with Michael McIntyre. Even if I'm still suffering some back pain. This is still worth the effort.   

I make my way home before the end. My bus deposits me in the city centre. It's still spitting. Newcastle is in happy dissaray..I look forawrd to The Loft on Friday.  

101 Essential Rock Records # 39 The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

 

Cited by John Lennon, Marc Bolan, Richard Thompson, The Rolling Stines and umpteen others.

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,625 Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds

 

I should be open minded. But as soon as I try to listen to post Syd Floyd I feel a ponderous drag, a heaviosity,  that discourages me from listening for long. 

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 48 Track Records

 

Set up by Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert management team behind The Who. The label featured The Who, Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Heartbreakers down the years. Rock & Roll.

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 62 Soft Cell - Not Stop Erotic Cabaret

 

Pleasure and pain. A realisation that you are ordinary. A desire to be extraodrinary. Not Stop Erotic Cabaret is a fascinating dicument of its time. And basic druves that never change. A testament.. 

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 4 Interview With R.E.M.

 

Peter Buck about Michael Stipe; ' He'd probably hate me for saying this. but he had a fairly ideal childhood, and to be an adult looking back for him, is something important. It's just a reflection on his personal past, coupled with the fact that, living in the South, you're not unaware of tradition.'

The main article in the N.M.E I've chosen to feature here. The interview with R.E.M. upon the first time they've acheived this status. Andy Gill's article is a hymn of praise to the band. Artfully and elegantly scripted,  it's first and foremost an effort to communicate ideas and make connections, to inspire the reader to join dots and go further themselves. An act of creation and connection.

The subject matter is just used as the point of origin by the writer and the band as a discussion point for enquiry which branches into any number of subjects. Michael Stipe and his relationship with his parents.Cinema and photography. America and it's search for meaning, The incomprehensibility of their early lyrics and their rationale and modus operandi. Their currennt direction. Storytelling.Where they stand in the tradition of narratives.

The heading of the article, The Eternal Return of R.E.M. is indicative of the casual but committed ambition of The NME in those days. A reference to Nietzsche's concept that time repeats itself infnitely and that everything will occur again in the same way, again and again.It's a concept at once terrifying and beautiful and it marries itself magically to what listening to R.E.M felt like for me at the time. Why I got completely lost in them.

Gill watches the band play in Newcastle. He tries to untangle their appeal. Their anti charisma. The Oxfam tatty dress sense, Stipe's persona of enigma and negation, his constant transformation in terms of appearance and dress. A refusal to project, an insistence of introspection and reflection. The band cast a spell in their first three albums as dense and impenetrable as the kudzu vegetation pictured on the sleeve of their debut album Murmur. It's still a mystery of how they managed to do it. A phenomenal achievement.

Gill pinpoints the essential timeless quality of the band. The 'atmospherics of nostalgia, and regret for something lost.' How it chimes with the Athens, Georgia music scene from which they've emerged and the cultural and literary heritage of the Deep South.

'Schlump is a good word to describe Peter Buck's onstage demeanour. Swaying and flopping hither and thither, and with a pronounced final split second drag of the hand across the strings, he's the closest thing to Keef since Keef went missing in action, Watching him you know you're in the presence of  a future guitar star. Does the prospect of imminent megastardom worry him?

'I'm more famous now than I'd ever like to be. What I'm really looking for ideally is that ten years down the line people will think we did something really incredible. Even if it's overlooked now  we will have done something that's so strong it will cross all boundaries. So that in ten years people will listen to it like I listen to The Velvet Underground or the Doors or Muddy Waters.'

It's a wonderfully written article. Interspersed with comments from the band and descriptions of their music, sensibility and perspective. The texture of their early years and crucially how they demanded an interpretive input from the listener. The audience. The article is a model lesson on best practice.  How to write about music.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,040 Sharp Pins

 

When I was in my teens I found a sound that I've fastened to all my life. The sound of jangling and ringing guitars plangent Rickenbackers. Fragrant melodies. This was most obviously exemplified by my discovery of R.E.M's Murmur in 1983. From there I went back to the Byrds, Television. Eventually discovered Big Star. Made my way through Power Pop . I have at least a box of records in my flat that jingle when they're not jangling.

Sharp Pins latest record makes its way through ths fragrant autumnal glade on their latest album Radio DDR. Do you mean Radio Free Europe. It's cler immediately where they're coming from and where they want to locate themselves.

Kai Slater, Sharp Pins guiding captain.. The Sharpest Pin if you will/ The band are out of Chicago, Illinois and adhere to the well trodden path of this stuff. Why would you mess with magic. September Gurls. December boys got it bad,,,'  .

101 Essential Rock Records # 38 Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

 

Labelled With Love - A History of the World in Your Record Collection - # 47 Sun Records

 

A Moment In Time N.M.E, 6th July 1985 - # 3 Orange Juice Ad

 

Orange Juice had not been the commercial sensation Polydor Records had hoped they might be when they signed them up after their remarkable Postcaed rise. Effectively Haircut 100 took their look and youthful and cheeky swagger and made it onto Top of the Pops on a regular basis in their stead for a few seasons before they split too.

It was happening to the bands of the Post Punk and 1982 New Pop bands one by one; Undertones, Japan, The Beat, Associates, Selecter; and on and on. The more aspirational and less nuanced types were the ones that survived. Spandau, Duran, Wham! and the likes of Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw.

In Orange Juice's case Polydor  made the most of a bad deal wuth a complilation of singles that largely hadn't made it. Excellent listen but that band had every intention and made every effort to thrive before Edwyn moved off to cult appreciation 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,626 Justin Timberlake - Future Sex / Love Sounds

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! # 63 Peter Gabriel - So

 

This album and particularly Sledgehammer will always remind me of the night I lost my virginity. So cheers Peter. I confess I'm not fond of the record itself I'm afraid. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,039 Edwyn Collins

 '                 

 

                         'Here's a penny for your thoughts. Incidentally, you may keep the change.'

A great artist. Preparing himself to hang up his spurs. And his plectrum. Edwyn Collins. He of Orange Juice of course. I always think most of my younger sister when I think about Orange Juice. She had a good friend called Kirsty at secondary school who lived on the large estate opposite the school we both went to in Petersham. They used to bunk off school and go round to Kirsty's house when her parents were out at work. Listen to Orange Juice. Jesus & Mary Chain.

Edwyn has a new album out. Every Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation. Edwyn is no stranger to ambition. Mixing in the profound with the purely corny. That's always been his essential gift and charm. Age has withered him somewhat and taken some of the edge off him. He had a certain cocky cruelty about him in his youth. This has dulled and there's a certain wan sentimentality in its stead all over Every Nation. It was always there, but over the years it has matured into fine wine as we can only hope will happen to us all. 

Here it seems he has retired to Rosewood & Sandy. Something more homespun and comfortable and ultimately rather touching..The quality of Every Nation  that's most immediately evident is its romantic quality.  Charm. Rustic deft. Poise. 

You can almost picture the old ham wandering the Highland paths having tethered his horse to an oak. Strumming on his telecaster. Grace, his guardian angel, by his side.The album has a wise and touching resonance and poignance. 

, What I Did Last Night - The Tubs at Zerox

 

'You've been reading some old letters. You smile and think how much you've changed. All the money in the world, wouldn't buy back those days.'

Live in the now. That's never the worst idea.  Doff your cap to the past. Luxuriate in it occasionally. But don't let yourself get dragged down a rabbit hole. There's danger in the past. Meanwhile plan for the future. Keep feathering your nest, But live .... in the now. 'Gee thanks Grandad! Why don't you stick to the music and skip the philosophy. ,'

I'm not a grandad. Nor a father. I've no regrets on either front.Yesterday  I'm awake at six.I  lie in bed looking at social media. There's a post from a friend that takes my fancy. About a band advertising themselve a Neurodivergent Post Folk. This confuses me in any number of ways. 

Why would anyone want to be Post Folk, even if they could be. I won't go into the  'and how can this process be Neurodivergent bit. When exactly do we get to the 'Post' Folk Label stage and how can this be a desirable thing. Perhaps I should just keep out of this altogether. Everyone else seems to enjoy this state of affairs.

When I was growing up om the Eighties Folk was something you recoiled from in horror or gazed on in uncomprehending stupefecation. Why would you want to grow a beard that appeared to have living matter in it. Go to a bar and sing hey nonny noe when you were still in your twenties. Times changes and things come back. Best to go with the times, the flow of history if you can. There's a time for every purpose under heaven .

I get up and put Lankum's Livelong Day on my headphones as I plan my lessons and prepare for the coming day. Prepare my powerpoints. Send them to my students in advance of my lessons. I'm settled in a nice routine now, a year into doing this.I'm in flow motion, Know how I need to prepare. Cut and paste, make sure the date and the company logo are correct and I'll be ready when the time comes and I need to click on Google Calendar, adjust my backdrop and prepare myself to be admitted into a virtual classroom in Dussledorf, Hamburg or Wuppertal. 

I'm relaxed now. I smile and think how much I've changed. My day is becoming more natural to me with every passing week. Unwittingly I get involved in a Social Media conversation with a good friend from my university  days which drags me momentarily back to the most traumatic days of my entire lifetime. My university days,.Boy, those were experiences.  I cry a bit but this isn't a problem anymore. I've learned to cope with it, been helped to cope with it by a very good friend who I'll always be grateful to. Anyway, time for that bath. 

While I'm in the bath I think of what record to play. This is important. I have a cover class at 10 this morning but regardless of the time I like to listen to an album in its entirety before I start my working day. When I was very young I had a bedtime story. Now I'm, err 'old', I'm at least entering that vicinity, (60 later this year) I have a morning album.Nothing stands between me and it.

I try not to repeat myself but I look for something to set the tone for the day. I generally attempt to settle on something in the bath but its open to late change if I flick through my albums and something takes my fancy at the last moment. I don't like to conform to a script. Least of all my own. This morning it's Cat Stevens Mona Bone Jakone I put it on. Lady D'Arbanville, that dented dustbin on the sleeve. Good old Cat. He's one with more than nine lives.

I'm dressed and breakfasted. My blog posts are posted and I'm bright and bushy eyed when I go to my cover class at ten. There's always a moment of suspense when I click on Google Translate and am sent to the virtual waiting room and then I wait for admittance. I love this moment. Of indesicision and anticipation. Who will let me in. If it's one of my regular groups will it be Rainer, Or Patrick. Barbara. Or Axel. 

If it's a new group who will I teach. I wonder what will they be like. It's much better than teaching a class in the flesh I've come to realise. There's enornous potential, possibility just in the distance, Those teachers who cling onto the face to face teaching are often struggling with control issues I suspect.This is the Post Lockdown world. Get with the beat baggies !

Suddenly I find myself in a room wuth R*****. She works for Deichmann, the German shoe guys. She works in Dussledorf and is in her fifties I'd say and it is immediately obvious we have ninety minutes together as no one else in the group seems likely to show. Get in.! She's a charming, lovely lady with big glasses, great English and a big smile.She trained as a Fashion Journalist. It's immediately clear that I will learn more than I need to teach. I just need to tweak the paperwork to keep the surveillance middle managers happy.

How should I put this, surveillance middle managers are never happy and you can never keep them satisfied. They hate their jobs and often hate their lives. Their emails often come across as cries for help. Distress signals. They will blame you for things whenever they can. Never mind, I have the best of the deal right now. I have 90 minutes with R****.

We talk about Sicily. We talk about the differences between the Italian and German mindset.We talk about fashion. We talk about the Zeitgeist. We talk about Vladimir Nabokov.  She's been reading Lolita. I recommend Pale Fire. I recommend Mad Men. 

She tells me that Influencers she suspects are on the way out.You heard it here first. In return I talk about the Unreliable Narrator. Vladimir Nabokov, Gunter Grass. The Catcher in the Rye. We end with Breakfast In Tiffany's. Marilyn Monroe was originally cast for this role but then she died and Audrey Hepburn made it hers. 

Good thing all round we decide given what Holly Golightly did for a living. Something that is artfully glossed over. Both with the book and the film. With Marilyn it would have been difficult to gloss over so artfully. And frankly might have made for a much darker cinematic. experience too.

The ninety minutes speed by like the intercity from Dussledorf to Cologne. We say , 'see you next week.'  I put Scary Monsters on and make myself a cup of tea wondering at how I get paid for this and hope that this turn in the road can continue on straight open highway until I retire and beyond. 

My next class, some lovely regulars is more smooth driving. We talk about driving accidents. I realise I need a business twist in the lesson for the pen pushing surveillance prison warders who check my work records for crossed 't's and spotted 'i's. With this in mind I get the students to describe work processes so I have something that will make them think I'm doing what they have told me I need to do. They don't realise that I'm half way through the tunnel and on my way to the beach, Good luck to them on their own tunnels. I can't help them with those I'm afraid.

My teaching is done and once my paperwork is too I'm off to the pool. Every day if I can. Sam is there at the desk. He's not happy because Newcastle United have won their first domestic trophy for 70 years and he's from the Sunderland area.A Mackem. Mackem's are not happy. They haven't been for a while now. And I suspect never will be again really. I can't do anything about that either..

I do my lengths. Have some time in the jacuzzi and sauna and make my way home. I still have a couple of hours to kill.  So I put on Michael Clayton and heat up a pizza. There's something really satisfying about watching a film you love for the umpteenth time. And they don't get better for me than Michael Clayton. George Clooney fighting for truth and the little man. Tom Wilkinson running naked through a parking lot and buying lots of French bread. Tilda Swinton being a psychotic corporate witch and getting her comeuppance. Those horses. Sorry for the spoiler. Why haven't you seen it?

Once it's done. I'm off. Downtown. The twenty minute walk down the hill to The Quayside and The Crown Posada, the most atmospheric pub in Newcastle. There are plenty of wondrous pubs in Newcastle but The Crown Posada is the most atmospheric. No need for further discussion.

To take a liberty with Television's Venus, one of the songs for me, 'Newcastle looks so Medieval. It seems to flap, like little pages.' Newcastle is some gorgeous city. There's no other description of it. Especially in the early evening as the days lengthen and Spring approaches on a daily basis The way the light falls on the gorgeous Georgian fronts as I make my way down Grey Street. You can have that London Put it in your pipe Stick it.... Let's leave it at that. 

I get myself a non alcoholic Erdinger and take a place in the front bar, under the paintings. An elderly couple come and take a seat next to me and chat together in happily married communion. I text nonsense to friends and enjoy my beer. As they get it up to go he elderly man gives me a glassy look, leans across to me and confers. 'They'll all be wanting to sit next to you before too long you know.' I nod back and smile. In a short moment this encapsulates exactly what I love so much about this city, 

My beer is sunk and after a brief trip to the gutter I'm off round the corner to Zerox. Mt.Misery will be due soon. Zerox is pretty in pink but crouched in scaffolding. :Like a pretty teenage lass in intensive braces. It's better in the long run.. I head inside, head up to the Shooting Gallery.

Walter is there at the door of course. Walter is pretty much always there. He's a fixture of cool events. He checks my name on the list, waves me in. It's early doors. There's plenty of room. And plenty of appreciation for Mt. Misery. Hartlepool's finest. Hartlepool may have many greats band but Mt Misery will always be its finest in my book.

I've seen them a few times. They're nice lads. A tight quartet with jobs to maintain but who just love doing this. They're between albums one and two. They're tight as newlyweds , they jangle like it's 1981 and Postcard Records are still putting out singles. They sing about love and they have a lovely sound. Shame the sound desk at Zerox is so poor and the distortion approaches dangerous levels.I need some earplugs.

I leave before they're done. I enjoy the set but hey my ears! My health. I need a break. A cool Scouser comes past my table downstairs. He's come down from Edinburgh where he works just to see them though he's staying from the rest. He's in the process of rolling a tab. I ask him if he'd mind. Hey, I know I'm a bad person. Don't worry, plenty have told me. He obliges and we go out. Not really for fresh air but to attend to a bad habit. A taste for poison. 

I don't get the guy's name but he's a lovely bloke. We talk about Glasgow V Edinburgh. Everton V Liverpool. He's an Everton fan. I sympathise with him.  This is blokes talk. I'm sure women's conversations rarely follow this pattern. We chat a bit to the Mt Misery guys who are out for the same reason as we are. R.E.M. Vs The Smiths. I tell them that I saw R.E.M. Several times. Very early on. Not only am I a bad person. I'm a dull one. Hey! Sue me. 

Back upstairs Stannington the main support are on. Their reputation proceeds them. At least to my ears.They're a local five piece and they're sloppy in the way that support bands were back in the day and I think always should be. The lead singer is wearing a ragged, lived in blue pullover that seems in danger of untangling and wraps the microphone so frequently arounnd himself you wonder whether it might be prudent to call 999.

 Yes folks! He loves Morrissey. The rest of the band don't seem to mind The Smiths either. They're not quite the finishhed article. But I expect they'll blossom and bloom in the coming seasons. They're ones to watch.

Two bands down and one to go. I'm starting to wane. Hey. I've had a long day. I go and plonk myself in the dentist's chair opposite Walter as the Shooting Gallery fills up. Word is out about The Tubs. This can still happen, even in 2025. Their's is a wave building and they're clearly preparing to ride it.

I hear shrieks and scowls and twangs from iside the darkened Shooting Gallery. The Tubs are doing their soundcheck but I also suspect they are highly inebrietad. Stannington's vocalist was swigging from the bottle when not attempring to aspyhxiate himself with his microphone cord. It's so confusng being young. Anyway, more drinking onstage I say. Putting on a a show is something more bands should aappreciate and take responsibility for. These are tough times lets face it. 

As soon as I get into the Shooting Gallery I realise I will not be here for the whole set. The Tubs are clerly a formidible proposition. Muscled, boisterous and extremely exhuberant and committed. Richard Thompson fronting the Smiths with Mission of Burma and yes early R.E.M. to boot. 

But the room is close, the sound is problematic and I'm tired. The Scottish drummer is absolutely shitfaced. Although he keeps time and is very funny, his diatribes between songs trying to encourage us to buy merch get repetitive as drunks always do and he starts to embarrass his bandmates increasingly. Anyway I've seen enough to wonder whether The Tubs might indeed be the future of Rock & Roll. If such a thing is possible in 2025. Some things were simpler in Bruce Springsteen's youth. I head home.