Saturday Scratch

Another week gone! To ease you into the weekend, here's a tune from the very end of  Lee Perry's Black Ark period. 1980's 'The Return of Pipecock Jackxon' was finally reissued in 2011 and to be honest it's a patchy affair, but 'Bed Jammin' is a mighty fine groove that just keeps rolling and rolling.

Hooded Fang

Hooded Fang's self-titled debut from 2010 was an enjoyable retro-sounding affair, but over the following few months 'Nuggets' must have been on heavy rotation in the band's rehearsal room, as 2011's 'Tosta Mista' boasts more of a 60's garage-rock vibe.

It's a slightly uneven album, but at it's best it's very good indeed. Here's the best of the bunch and one of my fave raves of last year.

The McCartney Connection

As the shutter clicked, capturing a happy couple in the East End of London exchanging their wedding vows, 225 miles to the North West a young man was enjoying his first day as a teenager. The date was June 18th, 1955. The couple getting married were my parents. The boy celebrating his 13th birthday was Paul McCartney.

The photo obviously means a lot to me on a personal level, but over and above that, I think it's such a wonderful image. It captures the moment beautifully, under what, I imagine, were difficult conditions with the poor light in the church and primitive technology of the day...also the bored choirboy is a nice touch! Today would have been my parent's 57th wedding anniversary. The last they celebrated together was their 52nd. 

Macca, of course, hits 70 today. To try and sum up his life, work and influence in a few words would be futile...so let's have a song. 'Press' may be considered a minor work, but it makes me smile every time I hear it - particularly if I hear it in conjunction with the video which is an absolutely joyful celebration of McCartney in 'Thumbs Aloft' mode. To this day, if I'm on the London Underground, I never miss an opportunity to do the 'walking down a wind tunnel' bit!

Many happy returns of the day Sir Paul.

Noddy Holder at 66

If you were at school during the early 1970s, chances are that you too were caught up in my generation's pop stand-off. Forget The Beatles versus The Stones...forget Oasis versus Blur, between 1971 and 1973 you were only allowed to express a preference for one band or the other and never the twain should meet - T.Rex or Slade, which side were you on?

I was firmly on the side of the guy who wasn't no square with his corkscrew hair. My first proper album was 'The Slider', first live show T.Rex at the Edmonton Sundown in 1972 and for about 18 months I listened to no-one else.

Gradually though, I realised that there was life beyond Marc Bolan's Les Paul and began checking out other things as well - including Slade, but of course I had to keep that piece of information from the kids at school!

Over the subsequent years, I doubt I've listened to Slade quite as much as T.Rex, old allegiances die hard, but a few of their records did become firm favourites. Here's two of them. Happy birthday Noddy!

Everything's Getting Older

Everything's Getting Older from swede on 8tracks Radio.

Animal Collective - Honeycomb

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Because of Your Eyes
Here We Go Magic - How Do I Know?
Xodus - English Black Boys
Jagwar Ma - Come Save Me
Lower Dens - Alphabet Song
Graham Coxon - Ooh, Yeh Yeh
Bill Wells & Aiden Moffat - The Copper Top

Everybody Got To Be Free

Where is the time going? I've got a couple of posts in the works, but just can't seem to get them completed. One of these days I'm gonna get myself organizized!

To keep things ticking over, here are a couple of versions of the same groove, by an unlikely pair of Richards - Little and Roy.