Monday Long Song

I've been living in the new gaff for nearly five months now, yet I've still to meet, or even cast eyes upon, four of my six immediate neighbours - they come and they go, very quietly it has to be said, at all hours. I'm assuming various forms of shift work are involved. Anyhow, while enjoying a few days off work last week, I took the opportunity to make myself known to any of the locals who might also have happened to be at home, via the good offices of On-U Sound collective Singers & Players. Over the course of one afternoon I played through 'War of Words', 'Revenge of the Underdog' and 'Staggering Heights' at, what can probably be best be described as, a potentially neighbour-bothering volume, but I never heard a peep from any of 'em, so I can only assume that either my neighbours weren't at home or weren't bothered.

Here's a heavy heavy tune from the 1981 Adrian Sherwood produced, Singers & Players debut LP, featuring the mighty voice of thunder himself, Prince Far-I.

Singers & Players - Quanté Jubila

I Can't Complain We Went Down the Drain

There's a new multi-disc PIL retrospective doing the rounds, featuring hits, b-sides, rarities and out-takes from John Lydon's post-Pistols career. I'm pretty sure this won't be on it though. During the 'Flowers of Romance' sessions in 1980, Lydon and Keith Levene were actively involved in the production and recording of tracks by their friend, the journalist Vivien Goldman. The resulting 'Dirty Washing' 12" EP  was issued in America and parts of Europe in April 1981, with a UK 7" release containing two of the three tunes (the third being a dub version) coming later in the Summer. These songs are a must for lovers of that particular strain of scratchy groove based post-punk that runs from The Slits, Raincoats and early PIL through to LoneLady and beyond.

In addition to the PIL factor, 'Launderette' also boasts the violin of Vicky Aspinall from the aforementioned Raincoats, musical maverick Steve Beresford contributes toy piano and percussion comes courtesy of Robert Wyatt, while 'Private Armies' adds a production credit for one Adrian Sherwood. This second tune wasn't so much covered as replicated wholesale by Sherwood and used as the closing track on the debut LP by New Age Steppers, which was also released in that heady year of 1981.

Vivien Goldman - Launderette 

Vivien Goldman - Private Armies 

New Age Steppers - Private Armies

From Black & White to Colour

I was nine years old, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. I arrived back at home for my tea after playing out. I'd taken my bike, so had to wheel it up the alley by the side of the house and in through the back gate. Closing the gate and looking to my right, I could see through the living room window to where my parents were watching the TV. But.........hold on a minute........something was different. The flickering images on the screen. Yes, it was Crossroads alright - one of Mum's favourite programmes. There were Meg Richardson, Mr Lovejoy, Tish Hope, Amy Turtle and Miss Tatum, all present and correct......, but the pictures were in colour! Dad had upgraded our rented black & white TV for a colour set! Overcome with excitement, I threw the bike down, ran inside and probably didn't budge again all evening. It's hard now to get across just what an seismic event this was at the time, which no doubt explains why I still remember it so very vividly. It was the Summer of 1969, but for me, the 1970's started that day.

What triggered this particular memory of one piece of technology being superseded by another? Well, over at Before The Streets Were Aired, my ever-growing repository for old photos, I've paused the usual daily black and white fare to feature strictly vintage colour images throughout the month of August. Take a look.

Before you go, check out Higher Authorities, a new band comprising Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley from Clinic, with the mighty Adrian Sherwood behind the mixing desk. Their debut LP, 'Neptune', is a dubby-psych curio that I've returned to time and again since picking it up a couple of months ago. Excellent stuff.